Amsterdam Weekly: Vol 5 Issue 35, 11-17 Sept 2008

Volume 5, Issue 35

11 - 17 SEPTEMBER 2008 Marching to the Jordaan beat.

FREE

The sing-a-long issue

www.amsterdamweekly.nl

The New Retro Amsterdam’s levenslied lives on where you least expect it page 8

FEATURE

REPORT

FILM

AGENDA

Is money worth more than breeding? NDSM artists don’t think so.

Is money needed to design your own home? Not if you head to Inside design.

Can you put a ticket price on Sita sings the blues?

Yes but it’s so worth it.

Party with the neighbours: festivals and buurt parties all over town.

Pages 5

Page 7

Page 17

Page 10 and onward...

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

In this issue and...

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City Second

By Peter Cleutjens

Congratulations! If you’re reading this, the world didn’t end on Wednesday. As we reported back in issue 31, 10 September was the day to fire up the Large Hadron Collider, which lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. Doomsayers have been jumping on this mammoth science experiment as not just a world-threatening action, but potentially wiping out our precious and mysterious universe—yes, and the fact is, even after studying coverage, we still don’t understand the science of particle physics in the slightest. It just has something to do with black holes and throwing particles out of whack. But still, we’re happy to be alive this week. So forget about your complaints and put aside your governmental woes. Take a breath, think of all the good things in your life, then hit the streets to take part in the numerous buurtfeesten and festivals going down across town this weekend. There you can hopefully even sing along with your fave levensliederen with friends and enemies alike. Besides, if we survived this experiment, 21 October is the next big date to look out for: the first actual high-energy collision in the LHC. So make the most of all those parties.

Features Inbox Decay in De Pijp. . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Nature Calling Elm trees . . . . . . . . . 4 News NDSM under fire? . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Amstergraph Non-westerners . . . . . 5 A Quick Bike Fix Marnixstraat . . . . 5 Ramadan Round-up Eating in . . . . . 7 Preview Inside Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 The People Versus Marnixstraat . . . 7 Main feature Het levenslied . . . . . . . 8 Lekker Bezig Streetlabbing . . . . . . 14 Film Review Sita Sings the Blues . . 17 3 Questions Dario van Vree . . . . . . 19

Agenda Short List 10 / Music 11 / Clubs 13 / Gay & Lesbian 13 / Stage 13 / Events 14 / Art 14 / Addresses 16 / Film 17 / Film Times 19

Plus The Mouth de Bosbaan . . . . . . . . . . 20 Night in the life Weber . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Eefje Wentelteefje . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

On the cover Photo by Sarah Nankin sarahnankinphotography.blogspot.com

Next week Design mania

25/08/2008 - 15:58 - Borgerstraat

Contact Amsterdam Weekly Publisher Yuval Sigler Director Todd Savage Editor Steve Korver Assistant Editor Steven McCarron Copy Editors Mark Wedin, Tim Muentzer Film Editor Massimo Benvegnù Editorial Assistant Sarah Gehrke Art Director Bas Morsch Artistic Advisor Simon Wald-Lasowski Production Designers Mattijs Arts, Russell Joyce Sales & Marketing Consultant Allison Cody Account Managers Randy Abels, Marc Devèze, Kate Hutchinson, Simone Klomp Distribution Manager Patrick van der Klugt Distribution Intern Coby Babani Finance Eugene Moriarty Printer Corelio Printing

Amsterdam Weekly is published every week on Wednesday and is available free at locations all over Amsterdam. Subscriptions are available for €60 per six months within the Netherlands and €90 per six months within Europe. Agenda submissions are welcome, at least two weeks in advance. New contributors are invited to visit Amsterdam Weekly’s website for contributor guidelines. Contents of Amsterdam Weekly (ISSN 1872-3268) are copyright 2008 Amsterdam Weekly BV. All rights reserved.

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AROUND TOWN

Nature calling

By Mark Wedin

Photo by Misha de Ridder

A nightmare on elm trees They first noticed it in 1910. Innocent elm trees (iepenbomen) across Europe were dying off from a fungal disease spread by a beetles. Fortunately this first strain was relatively mild, only killing off a small population of elms. Then the second strain hit in 1967. This time it spread like wildfire—and for the poor elms, proved just as disastrous. In the UK alone, more than 25 million elm trees died. And the remaining population has never recovered. Today, throughout Northern Europe, the beauty of a mature elm tree remains a rare sight. Except in Amsterdam.

Here they’re everywhere. We have at least 75,000 of them, many 80-100 years old. No other city on the continent can claim anywhere near that number. This might

seem a bit suspicious, when you consider the name of the trees’ mortal enemy: Dutch Elm Disease.

Yep, it’s ours. Imagine tree lovers abroad, cursing the dreaded Dutch Elm Disease for nearly a century, then arriving to see that our fair city—entire country, in fact—has been spared. Very suspicious indeed.

In reality, it just comes down to poor name choice.

It’s believed that the disease originated in Asia and was brought to Europe on logging ships. No biologist actually claims that it started in the Netherlands. It’s just thatDutch phytopathologist Marie Beatrice Schwarz was the first to identify the fungus, thus providing its name. The fact that our elms continue to flourish is a result of both pioneering work and continued stewardship.

Of course, Schwarz wasn’t alone. All of the research was carried out by seven Dutch women—a fact that would’ve made great fodder for early feminism. Though, perhaps it’s fortunate that this wasn’t promoted too agressively. Imagine the newspaper headlines warning against Dutch Ladies’ Fungal Disease, and then naming the seven women researchers who started it all. In that case, perhaps simply calling it ‘Dutch’ isn’t so bad.

Special thanks to bomenconsulent Hans Kaljee.

Got nature tips? naturecalls@amsterdamweekly.nl

Inbox

What happened to my multicultural hood?

Submitted by: Martin Draax Function: Graphic designer, animator, composer Subject: Decay Siriphon. Nothing better impresses your friend who lived in your neighbourhood some 15 years ago. As always, the food and the waitresses’ smiles were constructed in heaven. I think behind that kitchen door must be an elevator to the paradise up above.

As always, we over-ate, and felt our stomachs needed some massage—drinking on one of the very many terraces De Pijp has. Of course, it was hard to find two empty chairs. For every single chair outside a cafe in De Pijp was occupied by a handsome, seemingly happy house-owner with an impeccable suit, surrounded by friends of the same brand, speaking into his cellphone, nipping on his drink, looking over the saddle of his closely parked scooter to the real-estate object that had grabbed his attention. Yes: De Pijp has two sorts of inhabitants: people who own a house

or people who sell it. Most belong to both groups.

I am worried about the people who are in charge at the stadsdelen and the Centrale Stad, who want to ‘let the free market do its job’ and still call that a policy. The standard idea is this: 70% of the houses should be owner-occupied and 30% should be ‘social rent’. We have a huge housing problem in Amsterdam, and one might think that politicians would want to make plans so everybody has equal chances. We wanted a ‘spreidingsbeleid’, did we not?

It’s a wonder in itself that all houses in De Pijp and other neighbourhoods are built with the money of the community, and now sold by and to private owners. What kind of short-term vision is this?

A lot of money can be made over the needs of others and that obviously attracts people of less impeccable moral standards, which will be a problem for society on a longer term. For now, all who can afford it, build their walls around themselves and see nothing of even a remote spot of ugliness.

Let alone the future real-estate related problems of money devaluation, the collapse of the housing-market, of the people who will not be able to afford their mortgage or

the maintenance of their private buildings, a much more aesthetic challenge is nigh: the policy (or rather the lack of it) is creating ghettos rapidly.

People who can’t afford those renovated privatised houses have to live in neighbourhoods of poorer surroundings and therefore less maintained houses. We all know about the socio-dynamics of ghettos: there’s pessimism, criminality, dirt and displeasure in general. It’s very hard to escape poverty if you’re born in a ghetto. So, right now, we are creating bigger social problems for the future.

In a time when the Dutch are looking for their own identity, one thing is very, very emblematic: to create perfectly white endemic happy surroundings, we hire the cheapest workers from abroad. At the moment, those are Polish workers. They are being abused quite regularly, and our solution for their housing problem turns out to be this: we are about to put them in containers. Where will those containers reside? Not in De Pijp for sure.

Got an opinion? We want to hear it. inbox@amsterdamweekly.nl

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

Housing

AROUND TOWN

By Floris Dogterom

IS IT PROFITABLE TO EVICT NDSM ARTISTS? Local unrest as the big boys threaten to go Noord.

The bit of Amsterdam-Noord—usually not looked upon as the poshest stadsdeel to live in—located on the northern bank of Het IJ will be shiny and new in just a couple of years. A new gem in the city’s belt.

Come 2020 there will be 10,000 new houses and 600,000 square metres of offices, industrial estates, cafes, restaurants and schools. Oh, and the new Filmmuseum.

Since few people in the area are awaiting a total transformation, in theory, few will be affected by the plans.

Still, at NDSM, the former shipyard in the eastern part of the northern IJ bank, a group of artists are anxiously awaiting the developments, fearing that they may have to leave their unique working spaces. Bart Stuart is one of them. The artist, who switched from monumental sculpture to advising municipalities on how to arrange public spaces, rents a workshop under the slipways of the shipyard. But it’s not really renting in the traditional form, which is what lies at the heart of the problem he and his fellow users are facing. ‘We’re being treated like dirt,’ states Stuart emphatically.

Stuart, who is a member of Ondernemersvereniging de Toekomst NDSM-werf (Association of Entrepreneurs for The Future NDSM-werf), which represens the bigger part of the 250 artists and artisans at NDSM, looks to the past to explain the present situation. ‘Since 1993 some artists Space is money.

have squatted the spaces outside the big hall, turning the place into a broedplaats [literally breeding place, where artists live and work together]. City Hall decided in 1999 to formalise that situation, expanding the broedplaats to the big hall and held a competition. The cultural foundation Kinetisch Noord won it and transformed the hall into Kunststad [Art City], where dozens of work spaces were created, which artists can rent.’

In the area outside the big hall, Projectbureau Noordwaarts, a collaboration between Amsterdam-Noord and City Hall is creating Mediawharf, where media companies and other cultural organisations will settle. MTV already has. The location will also be used for events. Stuart is pretty sure he and his fellow-artists will have to leave. ‘There’s enough evidence. We don’t rent our spaces. We have a gebruikersovereenkomst [agreement on usage], that in time could be changed to a lease contract. But Noordwaarts is offering us nothing. And if we ask them what’s the matter, they don’t provide straight answers.’

Stuart accuses Noordwaarts, in so many words, of abusing the creative image of NDSM that the artists have helped establish. ‘In their communications they use images of Robodock [the annual technology and art festival]. You know, images of fire and machines,

because it looks cool and it sells. But they kicked Robodock out of the Docklands Hall! They also call us the pioneers of the area, which we were indeed. But now that the commercial interests are becoming bigger and bigger, they don’t need us any more. They are taking over aggresively.’

In response, René Grotendorst, director of Projectbureau Noordwaarts, says he can imagine that the artists in the area outside NDSM are worried. ‘But their position is not at stake. The people using the spaces under the slipways don’t have to leave. But I think—there are no concrete plans yet—that in time they will have to pay rent instead of the low fee they now pay. The reason we are momentarily not offering any lease contracts is twofold: renters have many more rights than users and, if we lease a place, it’s got to be something decent. At the moment it’s not, because the slipways need a lot of doing up.’ As to the eviction of Robodock from the Docklands Hall (not to be confused with the big hall where Kunststad is located), Grotendorst says that asbestos was found. ‘It even came down from the roof. People are not allowed in there any longer and the hall will be pulled down.’

But Stuart says that what he calls the gentrification of the NDSM is wrong. ‘The city needs space for creative people with low income. If there aren’t, Amsterdam will become less of a creative place. We also want NDSM to develop, but in the same, slow, organic way it always has.

Artists breeze in, like it here and decide to stay. NDSM has got to remain easily accessible for creative people.’ Judging from the Noordwaarts plans, it remains doubtful if Stuart will get his way.

More info at: www.ndsm.nl www.verenigingdetoekomst.org

Photo by Stefanie Gratz

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Google this...

‘Pikketanissie’ Amstergraph % of residents of a

non-Western background Bijlmer - 82% / Diamantbuurt - 40% / Pijp - 23 % Jordaan - 12 % / Museumkwartier - 10% Source: Dienst Onderzoek en Statistiek Amsterdam

Graph by Nicole Martens

A quick bike fix

By Pete Jordan

Marnixstraat Veilig!

Last Saturday afternoon, I walked down Marnixstraat in the traffic lane. I wasn’t alone. I walked with a couple hundred others, including dozens of kids (and my own three-year-old son). We had taken over the street.

‘BRRRING! BRRRING!’ rang my bike bell. ‘TWEEET! TWEEET!’ sang the whistle between my lips. Despite the racket I was creating, it was drowned out as others banged drums, clanged pot lids and chanted, ‘Marnixstraat veilig! Marnixstraat veilig!’

While various plans for restructuring the northern stretch of Marnixstraat are presently being considered by stadsdeel Centrum, we emphatically protested, with each ring of our bells and bang of our drums, that the street should no longer be used as a speedway.

The most direct route between my apartment and my little attic office in the Jordaan runs via Marnixstraat. Nearly every day I’m treated to the closest thing Amsterdam has to offer to anyone who likes the thrill of biking on a motorway without actually being on a motorway.

Cars race past at incredible speeds, often breezing within inches of cyclists and terribly close to pedestrians crossing the street.

Several times during the march, cars recklessly swerved around us, veering into the oncoming traffic and nearly causing collisions. These motorists inadvertently proved our point: the street desperately needs to be restructured to ensure increased safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

React: bikes@amsterdamweekly.nl

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AROUND TOWN

Amsterdam Weekly_3-9 July 2008

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AROUND TOWN

Ramadan Round-up

By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef

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The people versus...

By Floris Dogterom

Today Sunrise 7:07 am

Today Sunset 8:05 pm

Illustration by Tomas Schats Illustration by Harry Bloch

Food for thought

What will your rambling Ramadan Reporter serve for dinner this week? For what it’s worth, you were this close to receiving a detailed account of the opening of the Polder Mosque on the first Friday of Ramadan.

But I decided against it. For one thing, the mosque in Amsterdam Slotervaart is not half as unique as Dutch media make it out to be. Its major selling point is that men and women are allowed to pray together in the same room and that the sermons are in Dutch instead of Arabic. True, for the majority of Sunni Muslims it is perhaps a first, but for the roughly 10,000 followers of the Dutch chapter of Lahore Ahmadiyya Muslims—a reformist offspring of Sunni Islam that came into being around the end of the 19th century—this is very old hat indeed!

So where did your reporter go then? Think a Moroccan host family El Felali. Think a very special dinner guest. Think Mrs Ella Vogelaar—our Minister of Integration. The meet, greet & eat, more aptly coined ‘hospitality dinner’, was set up by the organisers of the Ramadan Festival who launched this idea some three years ago. And this year more than a hundred Muslim families—and still growing—have already expressed their willingness to host a Ramadan evening for non-Muslims.

Sitting on a red leather sofa near a crackling fire, Vogelaar was literally warming up for the iftar meal, while babbling away about the Dutch word gezellig and the fact that there seems to be no proper English word that captures its essence.

At around 8.20 pm it was time to break the fast, and as custom requires, Vogelaar sank her teeth into dried dates and drank some cold milk, thus acting in accordance with Prophet Muhammad’s iftar rituals. As the evening got underway, Vogelaar explained she’d never fasted before: ‘I come from a Protestant background, and we don’t have this tradition of fasting like, for instance, Catholics or Muslims do.’

Both Vogelaar and the Felalis believe in the concept of hospitality dinners as a way of getting to know each other on a much more informal basis. That said, I can’t help but wonder whether the elegantly furbished living room with an Eastern touch of class, the wafts of mouthwatering Moroccan delicacies, and a CD of the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum playing in the background would also work their magic on, say, Geert Wilders? Vogelaar frowns and pauses a bit before answering with a twinkle in her eyes: ‘I am not sure whether it would be such a pleasure for the hosts to have him over as a guest. But why not? It would be a great idea indeed.’

More info: www.ramadanfestival.nl.

To see Vogelaar with the El Felalis, watch NMO this coming Sunday on Ned 2, 14.30.

Preview

By Miriam Landman

DESIGN YOUR HOUSE IN ONE DAY What great timing. My boyfriend and I got the keys to our new apartment on the first day of September, a month fully dedicated to design! Curious about the activities of ELLE Inside Design, I pick up their newspaper. I’m impressed by the list of celebrated designers who are going to decorate 16 rooms in the Lloyd Hotel. But what strikes me is the opportunity to obtain free advice from interior specialists. Armed with a floor plan, you can basically design your house in just one day.

I decide I want to try this, knowing that for someone like me, it’s nearly mission impossible. At her studio I meet Jane Stroink of Tarzan Projekten. She’s one of the interior designers there to inspire and advise during Inside Design.

Stroink wants to know who I am and get a feel for my DNA. ‘The first step is to find out who’s sitting next to me. Only then can I create compositions which will enlighten people.’ So if you want some serious ready-to-use advice, you had best prepare yourself at home. Espe-

cially if you’re a couple and hope to avoid a public argument about your habits and characteristics during the half hour interview.

I don’t have the time to tell Stroink my life story, as we have much more to discuss, but I receive some practical tips concerning our new place. Keeping my mind spinning is her tip to break out the middle wall and create ‘my office’ in the living room. Stroink encourages me to make our space open and create serenity by using only a few colours. But an open space means everybody can see the immense collection of mini-racing cars my boyfriend owns. Hmm...

I continue with Saskia Huiting, the colour advisor from Histor, who tells me that colours have many hidden meanings, so it’s important she meets both of us to see who we are. ‘And it’s not only about emphasising your personalities.

The personality of your flat is of equal importance,’ she says. So we talk about our apartment, my job and Huiting’s passion for her job, and slowly I come to

realise that interior design and psychology are heavily entwined.

This week I’m determined to be Inside Design’s first all-in-one-day success story, having scheduled a meeting, together with my man, a mood board and three personality scans.

More info: ELLE Inside Design Amsterdam, 11-14 September 2008, Lloyd hotel www.elle.nl/inside_design

Messing up Marnixstraat.

Or not...

Coby Schoenmaker-de Groot is 77 and, until recently, lived all of her life in Willemsstraat in the Jordaan, where she ran a shop. Schoenmaker-de Groot and her brothers-in-arms of Verkeersgroep Jordaan (Traffic Group Jordaan) fiercely oppose the plans of stadsdeel Centrum to reorganise Marnixstraat, to the effect that the street will be chopped into different one-way traffic stretches. ‘It would be disastrous for the accessibility of the neighbourhood,’ she says. ‘Suppliers will have great difficulties reaching shops. Or take me. I help my old neighbour who’s 86.

Because of the one-way traffic we already have in many streets and grachtjes in the Jordaan, I have to drive in circles to get her to her physiotherapist, who’s only two blocks away. Furthermore, they say they want to tackle the speeding problem. But a one-way street will not prevent people from speeding. Rather, a one-way traffic system on the stretch between Haarlemmerpoort and Raampoort will force traffic to use Marnixkade as an alternative. The residents there are firmly against that. And finally, even more parking places will be sacrificed. We already have big parking problems in the Jordaan.’

Surprisingly, Schoenmaker-de Groot finds the stadsdeel’s alderman for traffic, Erik Koldenhof, on her side. The plan to cut up Marnixstraat is only one of three plans for the reorganisation of the street, one of which is Koldenhof’s. The basic elements of his plan: two-way traffic, cars use the tramway, two bicycle lanes. Koldenhof says he is against cutting up the street for the same reasons as Schoenmaker-de Groot. ‘It will endanger accessibility to the Jordaan and create problems in alternative streets.’ He states that his proposal would also help cut speeding. ‘Cars would only use the narrow tramway, which will reduce their speed.’ Koldenhof also has ambitious plans for the parking problem.

‘We are looking into the possibility of an underground car park under Singelgracht behind Het Marnix.’

By the time you read this, the stadsdeel will have made a decision. Given the balance of power there, it may be that Koldenhof’s plan will have won the first prize, meaning Schoenmaker-de Groot can breathe a sigh of relief.

Something to report? thepeopleversus@amsterdamweekly.nl

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

F E AT U R E

THE PEOPLE’S VOICES

Modern-day crooners may put a more sterile face on The Netherlands’ songs of life, love and misery, but the traditional music of Amsterdam lives on in the bars and dorpjes. Whether you know the words or not, Purmerend’s ’t Bonte Levenslied choir will have you belting out their heritage.

By Marlous Veldt Photos by Sarah Nankin

‘Do you actually know any of the songs he’s talking about?,’ Piet Voorloop (69) asks me in thick Amsterdams, with a look that lingers between cheeky and dismayed. I attempt to bluff my way to safety: ‘Some, not all.’ But I can tell he’s not buying it.

We’re having coffee, tea and bokkenpoten in a living room in Purmerend, where—together with three other members of men’s choir ‘t Bonte Levenslied—we are waiting for accordion player Ina van Veen (59). I think Piet is trying to find a song that I could sing with them, but as a new Amsterdammer with a clearly recognisable and slightly affected Zuid-Hollands accent, I feel quite intimidated by his probing attempts.

Luckily, our host, Just Out (65), comes to my rescue.

‘You might not know these songs, but you’ll know the ones we sing by Jan Smit and Marianne Weber. Or at least,’ he says, flashing a quick smile in my direction, ‘you’ll recognise the melody.’

And that’s what ’t Bonte Levenslied is all about. Nine years ago, the owner of cafe De Bonte Koe on the Koemarkt in Purmerend asked one of his regulars if he could

get together a group that would sing Dutch songs with his customers. The regular—Ron Gerritsen—invited a couple of men from the Purmerends Mannenkoor and gradually pulled together a choir that now sings volksliedjes and other levensliederen around the country, from their monthly sing-a-long at De Bonte Koe to international festivals and elderly homes.

Brothers Just and Louis Out (63) are from that original group; Jan de Swart (67) and Piet joined later. ‘Though you shouldn’t think that we were looking for extra muscle. We just needed some filler,’ Just deadpans.

On the phone I had him pegged as a native Amsterdammer, but it turns out Just is originally from Monickendam. ‘Real Amsterdammers,’ he says, ‘hear that immediately.’ Piet and Jan did spend the first decades of their life in Amsterdam; in the Staatsliedenbuurt and around Zeedijk respectively.

After Ina arrives with her accordion, the men group themselves around the couch. For their first song, they decide on ‘Oh Amsterdam, wat ben je mooi’. I relax, because it includes the following verse:

Al ben je niet in Amsterdam geboren Al weet je weinig af van de Jordaan, Toch heb je zo je hart bij ons verloren En wil je nooit uit Mokum meer vandaan ‘My mother and grandma were from the Jordaan,’ says Piet. ‘And there was always singing in that side of the family. If there was a birthday, it was a wedding!’ Of course, that Amsterdam hasn’t existed for a long time.

‘There is nothing there anymore,’ says Jan. Or in the words of Tante Leen: Waar nu op het Rokin die dure auto’s staan Ging vroeger het bootje heen en weer Ik ben nog voor een cent naar de overkant gegaan Als ik er ben dan zeg ik telkens weer: Wat ben je toch veranderd, in die jaren Mijn oude Amstelstad Contrary to most levenslied choirs, ‘t Bonte Levenslied like to keep it small. Currently they are a rotating group of ten singers, three accordion players, a keyboardist, a percussionist and a drummer. ‘Which means we can still perform if one or two of us can’t make it,’ says

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

Ina. A reasonable compromise, given their schedule of 30 to 40 shows a year and their intent on keeping it fun, especially for themselves.

The choir’s performances are topped by their interaction with the audience. Books with lyrics to all 120 songs are handed out, so everyone can sing along instead of humming through the verses.

One of the singers, who unfortunately is no longer well enough to join the group for performances, used to entertain the crowd with all sorts of theatrics. ‘Before a song he would say that he once had a girlfriend from around here,’ recalls Ina, ‘and after the song, he would say “and her dad had such and such car”. And you could hear them whisper “Is it her? Or maybe her?” He would keep it up the whole evening, until he gave them the name of the girlfriend at the end of night.’ ‘Or not,’ says Just. ‘Or not,’ Ina agrees.

Cafe Ondersteboven, Westerstraat 270 At 9pm on Saturday night, the Westerstraat is not the throbbing heart of the Jordaan you’d expect it to be. So we start our quest for het levenslied not as planned, in the infamous Cafe Nol, but at the other end of the street, in lower-key Ondersteboven.

We find ourselves alone with barman/owner Mark and friends of the family Tiny and Musa. On the second round of vaasjes we explain our mission. Mark plugs in a microphone and serenades us with a song from the Costa Del Sol. After that he coaxes one of the new Amsterdammers in our group into a smartlappen duet.

Then our friend from Ghent sings a passionate ‘I Will Survive’. A New Yorker nails a brilliant ‘Purple Rain’.

And Jordaan celebrity Jannes with the hat is Frank Sinatra. We love it! Like we love the regulars who start dropping in and buy us beer.

But our quest must go on and we drag ourselves away from more rounds of vaasjes and the temptation of the microphone. We start chatting with an older guy, who has come in from ‘t Monumentje for a quick one on his way to stay with his mother. ‘This is for tourists,’ he says. ‘If you want to see the real thing, you should come with me to Slotervaart.’

Jordaan feeling? It might (also) be for tourists, but Mark and his regulars are great singers and do it from the heart. Anyway, who says that a levenslied can’t be written by Prince?

A bar somewhere in Slotervaart Pieter, the older guy, takes us on bus 18 into Slotervaart.

We get off past Mercatorplein, at an indistinct corner of an anonymous grey block. Or at least that is what it feels like after the gilded wallpaper of the Westerstraat.

We enter and 40 people stare back at us. Then they turn back to Ome Hein, who is rocking his regular Saturday evening set, accompanied by a keyboardist. We make our way to the only spot left near the bar. Outside, kids in jumpstyle attire huddle around the tables drinking and smoking.

A guy in his late twenties points out a man in a striped polo shirt, who has picked up the microphone for an enthusiastically received version of Italian classic ‘Volare’. ‘That’s Bolle Jan,’ he says. Bolle Jan? The father of René Froger?! We wonder why he is not in his cafe in the Korte Regulierdwarsstraat. ‘You should read more blaadjes,’ the guy admonishes us. ‘His daughter now owns the cafe. And he’s here to see his wife in the Slotervaart hospital.’

Someone whispers in our ear that Moroccans are not allowed in the bar, although he can’t tell us how that policy is enforced. Somehow an accord has been struck though, he says, because nobody tried to burn down the cafe last year.

F E AT U R E

But frivolities aside, the group take great pride in their musical quality, and deservedly so. The men’s voices are deep and well-trained, and the musical arrangements add a new flavour to old melodies. Most importantly, the men sing with unmistakable passion. The further we move from conversation, the more emphatic they become in their intonation and gestures. You can clearly tell that they feel what they are singing.

Especially for Amsterdam Weekly readers, Piet proposes that they sing ‘Fiddler’s Green’, one of two English songs in their regular repertoire. Seamen’s shanties and Rotterdam’s ‘Ketelbinkie’ have made it in there as well.

After the group finishes the rehearsal for their coming Christmas show, they ask what I would like to hear as the morning’s encore. I pick ‘De Woonboot’, a smartlap with comic undertones.

Het water steeg snel en de meubels die dreven

Lost that Jordaan feeling?

How to sing your favourite levenslied loud and proud around town.

By Marlous Veldt (and friends) Fotos by Sarah Nankin

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De kans op verdrinking die was toen heel groot Want geen van beiden konden ze zwemmen Ze dreven de deur uit op een tafelpoot After one or two choruses I sing along, picturing Leentje and Nelis paddling around with their belongings in a woonboot on the Amstel, at the end of my street. Then I remember that nowadays they go for €400,000. In that tiny moment, I feel the pain and misery of the real Amsterdammer. At least a modern one More info: Next sing-a-long: Sunday 28 September, 16.00, Cafe De Bonte Koe, Purmerend www.bontelevenslied.nl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenslied www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_zex87fWXk

Waiting for the night bus back to the centre, we agree that the cafe will remain anonymous. No need to upset a fragile balance.

Jordaan feeling? Oh, yes. Including the Italian opera, community spirit, Purmerenders and xenophobia. And, I can’t help but repeat, the father of Rene Froger.

Cafe Nol Westerstraat 109 We went in. And we went out.

Jordaan feeling? Maybe on Thursday night when there is live music. Infamous or not, we doubt it.

Cafe ‘t Bruine Paard, Prinsengracht 44 We end our search with a final beer in ‘t Bruine Paard, ten minutes to closing and we’re all drunk. Although hopefully not as drunk as the five guys with grey to white hair hanging onto the bar. We know, however, that on the previous night ‘t Bruine Paard was full of wisdom and life. So for this review we ask permission to cheat a little and pretend it is still Friday.

There are no bartenders with microphones here. No Willeke Alberti or Italian opera either. Barwoman/owner Jantien picks out her favourite music, which tonight includes a soft Jimi Hendrix and Edith Piaf. Occasionally a customer bursts out in song, and the others nod approvingly. It might be because two of the people at the bar are from the Zeedijkkoor.

After finding out we’re on the hunt for het levenslied, Marijke—who has roamed Amsterdam’s bars since women were not supposed to go out alone—and conductor Paul say we should check out the other side of the Dam. More singing and less ego, apparently.

They do seem a bit wary of idolising the Jordaan.

‘The Jordaan was only fun if you were one of them,’ says Marijke, born on the ‘the other side’ of the Prinsengracht.

‘When I walked through here on my way to school, they treated me as the enemy.’ So why are they so famous then? ‘Because they are loud-mouths,’ says Paul.

Our time swiftly passes with discussions on the merits of the rivalling Zwanenkoor, Twente versus Oost-Gelderland and living in a city that is not your own and doesn’t necessarily like you being there. Marijke and Paul sing a song about a working woman and chide a frat boy worn out from ontgroening for being ridiculous. ‘But it’s in empathy!’ says Marijke. ‘It’s better he knows people see him being an idiot, than everybody pretending he isn’t there.’ After some discussion we agree, although it was sad to see him cry.

Jordaan feeling? ‘At ‘t Bruine Paard we don’t sing het levenslied, we live it,’ a customer told us. But they do also sing it. Preferably on the bridge over the Prinsengracht, in the face of the bars on ‘the other side’ where singing isn’t even allowed.

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AGENDA

SHORT LIST

Jasper Groen—Young Identities, Thursday, Melkweg Galerie.

THURSDAY11 SEPTEMBER

FRIDAY12 SEPTEMBER

Festival: Streetlab Zuidoost

Art: De Wereld van Witte de With

‘An international platform for young designers and creators from the street’... something you’d normally expect to find out West or in the centre of town. But this year, the epicentre of the Dutch street art and fashion universe is Amsterdam Zuidoost.

Streetlab promises to be a colourful stew of urban style and attitude, including shops, fashion and modelling competitions, photography and graffiti exhibitions, plus workshops for the creatively curious. Activities are free in daytime; a measly €5 for Friday and Saturday evenings’ DJs, live bands and fashion shows. And if you’re afraid of hanging around Bijlmer after dark, there’s afterparties in Paradiso (Friday) and Hotel Arena (Saturday). For full programme see www.streetlab.nl.

(Ben Blench) by Station Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA, 12.00-19.00, free. Also Friday and Saturday at various times.

Guerilla gardening is a form of street art aimed to take over abandoned parts of the city by growing crops or plants. Such actions can be expected throughout Rotterdam during the annual art festival De Wereld van Witte de With, which has the theme ‘Green’ this year. The gallery-laden Witte de Withstraat will be legally gardened up with strips of grass, connecting the many exhibitions both in- and outside the festival locations. Sound systems will blast music as well as sounds of nature. And in the mobile installation ‘Car Park’, actual flora and fauna are moved through the street with motorised vehicles. See www.festivalwww.nl.

(Marinus de Ruiter) Witte de Withstraat, 17.00-23.00, Rotterdam, free. Until 14 September.

Art: Jasper Groen—Young Identities

Contemporary: Asko/Schönberg plays Birtwistle

Jasper Groen (1974) abandoned his former career as a journalist to become a photographer. Passion and perseverance made him an apprentice of the renowned Erwin Olaf and his work was published in Vrij Nederland. Now he has his own exhibition in Melkweg Galerie, on display throughout September. Young Identities shows portraits of emo youngsters in their colourful-but-dark, punk-like style, plus an intriguingly personal series called Jeffrey: a boy who morphed from a Nazi skinhead into an aspiring photo model. Groen’s book, Finding Emo, made with photographer Martijn van de Griendt, is for sale at the gallery. (Isabel Serval) Melkweg Galerie, 13.00-20.00, free. Until 28 September.

Pick a category, and watch Harrison Birtwistle not fit into it. The 74-year-old British composer has a thing for the theatrical, but revels in washes of abstract sound; his music can be ritual-inflected or based on pre-set programmes; he favours forward-moving narrative constructions but builds his narratives from refraction and variation; strongly rhythmical patches easily cede to unabashed lyricism. Tonight, two Birtwistles—2005’s Neruda Madrigals—with poetry by Pablo Neruda and textures reminiscent of Monteverdi—and Cortege—a numerically-derived work receiving its Dutch premiere-–will meet Alexander Raskatov’s The Last Freedom. Categorically, this is a gig to get to. (Steve Schneider) Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €24.50/€28.50.

Stage: De Hand de Vergissingen Maakt II What defines theatre? There’s a stage, a script, actors... Warner & Consorten, however, don’t need any of this. Instead, they make ‘unexpected performances for unusual places’. Telling stories is secondary; scripts are non-existent. It’s all about sounds, adventures, movements, places and things. They use a city as their playground and everything else as their toys. Lately, for example, they’ve been seen trundling black rubber tyres through the towns of Haarlem and Erlangen. For their newest, though, there’s been a quite excessive decision in regards to setting—De Hand de Vergissingen Maakt takes place in an actual theatre! But that’s about as far as they get with borrowing traditions—there’s still no script, or even characters. As a result, the performance, which relies on improvisation and secret games, is ever-changing. Which is something that should really define theatre, too. (Sarah Gehrke) Muiderpoorttheater, 20.30, €9. Also Friday and Saturday.

TUESDAY16 SEPTEMBER

WEDNESDAY17 SEPTEMBER Festival: 10 Jaar TryTone Jubileum Festival Jazz: it’s not all berets, bebop and ‘Lady Sings the Blues’. Nowadays there’s a thriving experimental scene, mining a rich vein of unconventional, crossover sounds. With its jubilee festival, TryTone celebrates a decade of ‘searching for new ways of jazz’, and offers a chance to reset your preconceptions via a programme of improv, skronk, parp and glitch craziness. A week of precise, Zappa-esque randomness officially kicks off tonight—before moving to Bimhuis, Tilburg and Utrecht next week—as artists like Agog, Tone Dialing, Oscar Jan Hoogland, the Zapp String Quartet and Knalpot wrestle with the gatekeepers of the outer reaches of melody, tone, rhythm and texture. Mellow, chill-out music it ain’t. (Ben Blench) Zaal 100, 21.00, €8.

Send details and images for listing consideration at least two weeks in advance to agenda@amsterdamweekly.nl.

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

MUSIC

AGENDA: MUSIC Must see: Electronica

Thursday 11 September Roots: Hotel These locals are always a tricky bunch to peg, seeing as their influences veer around the world so effortlessly. One minute it’s rootsy guitar folk, emanating from the US/Mexican desert, the next they’re throwing a Balkan party. The show also marks the launch of their new album, presented on USB-sticks with video and photographic extras. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €7.50 + membership Rock: Rose Hill Drive Riff-heavy rockers from Colorado. There’s no doubt that this long-haired trio are harking back to the halcyon days of ’70s rock, but hey, they sound more contemporary than token releases by The Black Crowes. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 20.30, €11 + membership Jazz: Willem Breuker Kollektief They may be at risk of losing funding in the latest round of governmental culture cuts, but that won’t slow up sax and clarinet maestro Breuker, now leading his genre-pushing collective for more than 30 years. Bimhuis, 20.30, €15 Hiphop: Actitud María Marta Crossover feminist hiphop trio from Argentina. Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 21.00, €8 Soul/Hiphop: Bloemetjes Buiten With a live set from The Fringe, an upcoming hiphop and soul outfit who’re drawing comparisons with C-mon & Kypski and Pete Philly. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €6 Jazz: Ed Verhoeff 4 A jazzy improv journey with Afro, Brazilian and Indian influences. Badcuyp, Noordpool, 21.30, €8 Pop: Johan Asherton Sixties-style Parisian pop. Skek, 21.30, free Pop/Rock: Club 3voor12 Live radio and TV session featuring sets from The Girls and The Death Letters.

Desmet Studios, 22.00, free, tickets: www.3voor12.nl Rock: The Mahones Celtic punk rock from Canada, throwing together influences like The Pogues and The Waterboys. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5

Kelley Polar Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, Thursday 11 September Classical music guru turned electro pop maestro. When he’s not banging out dancefloor fillers, he’s mastering pop dance grooves, filling the void between The Human League and Soulwax. 23.00, €8 + membership

Festival: Pure Jazz This festival is as far from pure jazz as it gets, in fact, with this extended weekend of energetic performances not just drawing from the jazz scene, but also lots of soul, hiphop, electronica and world music. See www.purejazz.nl. Various locations, Den Haag, various times and prices

Play for Voices, performed by singer-songwriters from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Van Gogh Museum, 19.30, museum entry cost

Friday 12 September

Contemporary: Cristina Zavalloni This classicallytrained Italian singer has been a respected repeat guest at Bimhuis since the ’90s. What’s more, she’s the favourite vocalist of composer Louis Andriessen.

Bimhuis, 20.30, €15

Opera: Die Frau ohne Schatten An opera by Richard Strauss, with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. The opera is regarded as the pinnacle of their efforts, so expect an elaborate adaptation by De Nederlandse Opera. Het Muziektheater, 19.00, €15-€80 Singer-songwriter: Friday Night Pop music inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood—A

Local Tip: Reggae CD release

Karmakonga Westerliefde, Saturday 13 September The Amsterdam reggae crew launch their new album. 20.00, free

Classical: Piano Evening An annual tradition at Concertgebouw. Five pianists take turns producing atmospheric renditions of works by Beethoven, Chopin, Franck, Liszt and the other usual piano greats.

Concertgebouw, Kleine Zaal, 20.15, €20

Pop: Apes in the Orange Grove Acoustic pop and relaxed grooves. Skek, 21.30, free Singer-songwriter: Darren Byrne Irish songwriter.

Molly Malone's, 22.00, free

Soul: The Soul Prophets Unsurprisingly, a retro soul outfit from Amsterdam. Maloe Melo, 22.00, €5 World: Noite de Gafieira e Forró South American dance night with live set from Pinga. Badcuyp, Noordpool, 22.30, €7 Festival: Pure Jazz See Thursday. Various locations, Den Haag, various times and prices

Saturday 13 September Classical: Radio Filharmonisch Orkest A choral performance with the Groot Omroepkoor, featuring Bach’s Fuga (Ricercata) a 6 voci, Stravinsky’s Symphonie de psaumes and Koechlin’s Offrande musicale sur le nom de Bach; conducted by Ed Spanjaard. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 14.15, €25/€29.50 Opera: Opera Pietje Final concert of the 2008 Hofjes en pleinenconcerten. Even the Jordaan gets sick of it pissing down eventually. Noorderkerk, 15.00, free Singer-songwriter: Maria Taylor She may be from Alabama, but there’s no overpowering country twang to be found here. Taylor was previously a member of Azure Ray, with Orenda Finkw and Now It’s Overhead, though is now promoting solo material with a careful blend of acoustic pop and soft electronics. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 19.00, €7.50 + membership Jazz: Lazzo Matumbi Brazilian Summer Sessions invites this icon of Afro-Brazilian music. Matumbi translates his love for soul singers like James Brown and Marvin Gaye into a Brazilian swing, delivering popular songs from Bahia with his deep voice and a good dose of the blues. Bimhuis, 20.30, €16 Rock: Last Night Winston Kingdom is heading out of commission for roughly a month in order to rebuild and refresh, so this party is all about tearing the place down—well, figuratively. Live sets from Labcane and Bomba Roja, plus maybe some surprises in store. Winston Kingdom, 21.00, €6 Tango: Tangosalon Organist Aart Bergwerff performs tangos with dance accompaniment.

Orgelpark, 21.00, €12.50

Need a better reason to visit Den Haag than just your old Auntie? Try the Pure Jazz festival, all weekend long.

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AGENDA: MUSIC Must see: Clubs

Jazz: Esperanza Spalding This 23-year-old, classically trained singer and double bass player has already appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to present her new CD, Esperanza, and is undoubtedly headed for big things. On the album she combines soul, jazz, funk and Latin in alternately swinging and intimate songs, delivering a multicultural mix of influences from her hometown New York in both Spanish and English. Bimhuis, 20.30, €14 Heavy: Scars On Broadway Furious but far from ground-breaking Hollywood metal. The big draw of this band are System of a Down members Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan, but there’s no real surprises in either style or substance. Melkweg, The Max, 20.30, €17.50 + membership Experimental: DNK-Amsterdam Weekly concert series for new live electronic and acoustic music. For this season opener, expect sets from duos Jim Denley (saxophone, flute and electronics) & Kim Myhr (guitar), and Carlos Galvez (clarinet) & Enric Monfort (percussion). SMART Project Space, 21.30, €5

Tuesday 16 September Opera: Die Frau ohne Schatten See Friday. Het Muziektheater, 19.00, €15-€80 Pop: Colbie Caillat Yet another ‘MySpace phenomenon’, this time from the US. Like a female Jack Johnson—though possibly less annoying—this daughter of Fleetwood Mac producer Ken Caillat dabbles in light folk pop and surf soul. And if the majority of tonight’s audience are teens with MySpace accounts, let’s just lock the doors. We can build another pop temple. Paradiso, Grote Zaal, 19.30, sold out

Photo by Wouter Vandebrink

Singer-songwriter: Open mic Hosted by the Amsterdam Songwriter’s Guild. Cafe Sappho, 20.30, free

Blend Paradiso, Friday 12 September With Blend magazine launching a new international photography special, they’re going full-out at Paradiso to please everyone with this party. Guests include The Subs, Jahcoozi, De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, Boemklatsch, Le Marquis en La Familia and much more. 22.00-late, €17.50 + membership

Hiphop: Jawat! Solid Nederhop from ‘beattown’ Zwolle. Support from young rapper, Turk. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 21.30, €12 + membership Singer-songwriter: Darren Byrne See Friday. Molly Malone's, 22.00, free Pop: Foute Nacht van Max Havelaar A varied party to raise awareness about the negative effects of growing cotton and how to make the world a happier place by using only organic cotton. As such, if you bring along a piece of clothing made of ‘bad cotton’, the entry fee for this party is waived. Thus, you get to take in live sets from the likes of Giovanca, MeloManics and Malle Pietje & the Bimbo’s. There’s loads of DJs too. Just don’t sacrifice anything of too much sentimental value. Paradiso, 22.00, €10 Festival: Pure Jazz See Thursday. Various locations, Den Haag, various times and prices

Sunday 14 September Classical: De Jongste Garde An intimate performance by members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Marya Semotyuk-flute; Helma van den Brink-bassoon; and Frank van de Laar-piano.

Bethaniënklooster, 15.00, €16.50 Classical: Yoshiko Ieki Harpsichordist plays songs by Purcell, D’Anglebert, Bach, Rameau and Duphly.

English Reformed Church, 15.15, €17 Funk: K-oZ Collective A kaleidoscopic voyage into hiphop, jazz and funk. Blijburg, 17.00, free Jazz: Paul Termos—Double Concert Saxophonist Paul Termos passed away five years ago. As a player and improvisor he performed with Guus Janssen, Maarten Altena and Misha Mengelberg. As a composer he used simple chords, scales and repetitive patterns to create gripping, angular music, studiously devoid of excess. Tonight, friends pay tribute: performing his songs from 17.00; delving into his improvisations from 20.00. Bimhuis, 17.00, 20.00, €15

Contemporary: Asko Schönberg Ensembles Local modern classical heroes present an evening dedicated to Harrison Birtwistle and his Stravinskian no-nonsense attitude. Included are his Neruda Madrigales and the Dutch premiere of Cortege. See Short List. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €24.50/€28.50

Pop/Rock: Sunday Farewell Carnage A farewell party for Nina and Anthony. But if you don’t know them, soak up the diversity of sets and performances from The E-Fans, The Pedro Delgados, Lo-Lite, The Paranoia Club, Podracer, Heidi Happy, Herman en Een Bakje Geiten Kwark, Edukators and Carnival of Hallucinations. Stubnitz, 20.00, €5 Classical: Philharmonia of the Nations ‘Evergreens and masterpieces’, including Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy and Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony; conducted by Shinik Hahm. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €28.50/€33 Hiphop: Immortal Technique Political New York hiphop with occasional retro soul grooves thrown in for good measure. For this tour, in support of recent album The 3rd World, he’s backed by DJ GI Joe. Melkweg, The Max, 21.00, €22 + membership Punk: La Fraction Four-piece female-fronted French punks. OCCII, 21.00, €5 Jazz: Preston Reed An intimate solo performance by the flamboyant Brit guitarist. Badcuyp, Noordpool, 21.00, €8

World: Mariachi Tierra Caliente Celebrate Mexican independence with an authentic mariachi performance. Sugar Factory, 21.00, €15 Singer-songwriter: Nina Kinert Gentle-as-can-be folk from this Swedish songstress. Pipe down at the bar or no-one will actually hear her. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 22.00, €8 + membership

Wednesday 17 September Classical: Residentie Orkest The Den Haag orchestra team up with Rundfunkchor Berlin and inimitable Estonian-American conductor Neeme Järvi for a grand performance of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 14.15, €46.50/€54.50 Hiphop: Flobots Alternative hiphoppers from Colorado.

There’s a bit of rock in there but they specialise in organic hiphop. Surprisingly, the mix of both seems unforced, leaving room for cool grooves and flowing rhymes. Paradiso, Kleine Zaal, 20.00, €8.50 + membership Classical: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto and Bruckner’s ‘Romantic’ Fourth; conducted by Mariss Jansons, with pianist Krystian Zimerman. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €20/€60 Jazz: Fly Tight young trio who’ve already made their names individually, performing in the bands of Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau and Pat Metheny. Bimhuis, 20.30, €18

Festival: Pure Jazz See Thursday. Various locations, Den Haag, various times and prices

Experimental: 10 Jaar TryTone Jubileum Festival Breaking new ground in the contemporary jazz scene every couple of weeks at Zaal 100, this gig marks the start of the 10th birthday celebrations, with sets from Tone Dialing, Duo Gibson-Hoogland and Knalpot. See Short List. Zaal 100, 21.00, €8

Monday 15 September

Pop/Rock: Amsterdamse Popprijs Sets from The Tunes, Red Over Black, The Darko, Teague, Two Way Radio and White Lily. Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 21.00, €6

Classical: Giovanni Collima Italian cellist straying between classics, originals and Hendrix. Istituto Italiano, 20.00, free, reserve at www.iicamsterdam.esteri.it

Electronica: Bleepstreet 8-bit electronic tunes from a clutch of lo-fi hardware hacking specialists.

OCCII, 21.00, €5

Classical: Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra Romance? German? These two things don’t typically show up in the same sentence, but apparently conductor Peter Sánta and violinist Lisa Jacobs are gonna give it a go, performing works by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Beethoven. Concertgebouw, Grote Zaal, 20.15, €27.50-€35

Experimental: Mutziek_Media_Performance_FestiFault Adventures in audio from Stefan Kushima (AT), Botborg and Maxi Bacon (FR). Stubnitz, 21.00, €8

Singer-songwriter: Darren Byrne See Friday. Molly Malone's, 22.00, free

DNK-Amsterdam is back: weirdness and audio idiosyncrasies abound.

Funk: Hipdrop Live session featuring members of Cmon & Kypski, Zuco 103 and Lefties Soul Connection.

Bitterzoet, 21.30, €5

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

CLUBS

A G E N D A : C L U B S / G AY & L E S B I A N / S T A G E Must see: Party

Thursday 11 September 3 jaar lang Vreemd Carrying on with the birthday celebrations of strangedom, this time with Steffi, Brent Rozendaal and Dimi Angelis. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €9 Blue Note Trip Weekly jazz and dance fusion featuring DJ Maestro and special guests. Melkweg, Oude Zaal, 23.30-late, €8

Friday 12 September Wadada Sound System Roots, rock and reggae night. OCCII, 23.00-04.00, €6 klinch: Rauw Rock ’n’ roll raving, with special guest, potty-mouthed hiphop electro queen (well, princess), Princess Superstar. Other guests include Huoratron (Helsinki), Disc Twins and resident Joost van Bellen. Extending this edition, Little Sexmachine shake down the Oude Zaal for good measure. Melkweg, 23.00-late, €15 + membership Spielplatz Clubs are like playgrounds (Spielplatz) for people that have passed the toddler age. And the latest playground hype in the club scene is using German words. On the Schaukel: artist Judith Icks. In the Sandkasten: DJ Kid Reve. Sugar Factory, 23.5905.00, €10

Saturday 13 September Nada! Alternative dance night for ’80s, electro, neopop, avant-garde and distorted disco sounds. Industrial and electro pop from Codes (BE) and Dolina (F/BE).

OCCII, 22.00-04.00, €6 Club Cut the Crap A party that concentrates more on quality music than the latest hypes. Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina, 22.00-late, €5 eRRorKREW: The Opening of the Techno Season Yes, yet another season has to be opened. And who better qualified to cut the red tape than the eRRorKREW crew? The hot line-up includes Dorine Dorado, Kwik and Kostas Horn, plus familiar eRRorKREW (shadowy) faces. Stubnitz, 23.00-05.00, €10 Secret Cinema Invites ...and the invitees are: Warren Fellow, Egbert and Reiss. The hosts’ gifts: techno music. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €12.50 Basserk Launch party for Basserk’s new AD [All Digital] series. OT301, 23.00-late, €5 Gemengd Zwemmen Two rooms of swimmingly diverse noise. In The Max, it’s all about the ’80s and ’90s, for better or worse; in the Oude Zaal, there’s alternative dance, pop, rock and indie hits. Melkweg, 23.59-late, €9

Sunday 14 September Wicked Jazz Sounds Jazz, hiphop, broken beats, nujazz, funk and Afro sounds, as classic vinyl collides with live musicians. Sugar Factory, 23.00-05.00, €9.50

GAY&LESBIAN

Military Action Church, Saturday 13 September Act out your favourite military and boot camp fantasies at this men-only dance and sex party. Dress code: army, military. DJ Benjamin spins the tunes while you do your hard duty. 23.00-04.00, €10/€12.50

Sex club: XXX Leather Popular and steamy men-only fetish party. Strict dress code: leather, rubber, uniform, army. DJ Jon Doe and VJ Eddi Bal. Club JVG, 22.0004.00, €TBC Party: Flirtation Ready to flirt? Then dress to kill and head to this flirtastic women’s party with DJs Marcella and Noëlle, plus Covergirl Sunny. Panama, 23.0004.00, €15/€17,50

Thursday 11 September Party: Lezzie Chill Out The name says it all. Chat, chill, dance and/or flirt. And sip sexy cocktails. Cafe Sappho, 21.00, free

Dining: Getto Burger Queens Feeling hungry? Today all burger dinners at this funky restaurant/bar are just €10. Getto, 18.00, €10

STAGE

Saturday 13 September Party: Saarein’s 30th Anniversary Party In 1978 Amsterdam’s first women-only cafe opened its doors.

Much has changed—the cafe is now mixed—but it’s still a popular hang-out. Celebrate and remember the old times with drinks, food, pictures and a quiz.

Saarein, 16.00-00.00, free

Sunday 14 September Edited by Willem de Blaauw.

Wednesday 17 September

Party: Zonde Paradiso’s gay/mixed Sunday nighter to finish off the weekend. Attracts a younger student crowd. Paradiso, 23.30-05.00, €7.50

Monday 15 September

Friday 12 September

Happy hour: Cheap Monday Broke after the weekend?

Then head to this funky bar with great staff, whoopie tunes and sexy punters, and spend your last dosh on cheap beer at €1 a glass. PRIK, 16.00-01.00, free

Literature: Book signing session A bunch of American authors, including Justine Saracen, Kim Baldwin, Lisa Girolami and Jane Fletcher, sign their books at this haven for queer reading. Boekhandel Vrolijk, 15.30, free

Theatre: Hij zei dat zij zei dat hij zei Extra performance of this play—other dates are sold-out—about transvestism and relationships.

Featuring Micky Hogendijk. In Dutch. Polanentheater, 20.15, €12.50

Hurra! Das macht Spaß! Non-Germans are also welcome at Spielplatz.

Opening Theatre: Debutantenbal—Vielfalt Never dared to enter a theatre before? Stadsschouwburg tries to increase their audience by giving theatre greenhorns a chance to see a play for free. All you need do is bring someone more experienced with you, willing to introduce you to the new and exciting world—and pay for their own ticket. Onstage: Vielfalt by Jakop Ahlbom, a light-hearted fable about a sad magician. After the play there’s a fancy ball in the foyer. Stadsschouwburg, (Thur 21.00), free/€15 Theatre/Dance: That’s why they call us drama Lockin’, poppin’, breakin’, modern dance, ballet, jazz, tap, skating, DJing, fashion, spoken word, theatre and more. All by the colourful crew called The Hiphop Circus. Melkweg Theater, (Thur, Fri 20.00, Sat 18.00), €5 Performance: De huilende kers Portraying the legend of the Tukurimastas—a gang of thieves that robbed people by using theatre techniques to distract them.

Melkweg Theater, (Thur, Fri 21.30, Sat 20.00), €7.50

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

A G E N D A : S TA G E / E V E N T S / A RT

Theatre: De hand de vergissingen maakt II Playful play by the action-packed theatre collective Warner & Consorten. See Short List. Muiderpoorttheater, (Thur-Sat 20.30), €9 Theatre: Hotel Midlife Theatergroep Aluin with their hilarious yet sad piece about the reunion of a group of forty-somethings. A long, long time ago, they were a pop band who enjoyed one hit single. Now, as they meet again to perform at a retro festival, they’ve all changed completely. Or have they? In Dutch. Theater Bellevue, (Mon, Tues 20.30), €16 Theatre: Vallende Ster After a novella by Bernlef, this play is about the former varieté artist Wim Witteman, looking back on his life. Watch out for some tragedy, some comedy, some Beckett, some autism—and for a heartbreaking performance by René van t’Hof, one of the most accomplished mime actors of this country.

Theater Bellevue, (Wed 20.30), €17.50

Ongoing Theatre: TF-1: Laatste Nachmerrie This last part of Laura von Dolron’s trilogy of ‘stand-up philosophy’ is based on the documentary The Power of Nightmares, about the rise of American neo-conservatives. Theater Bellevue, (Thur 12.30), €14 Theatre: TF-1: Mijnheer Porselein Action-packed family production by Studio Orka, taking place in a real forest. Tuin Park Ons Buiten, (Thur 16.00, 19.00), €12 Theatre: TF-1: De Pianist Stage adaptation of the story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who survived the Warsaw ghetto—a story that became well-known through Roman Polanski’s 2002 film. With English surtitles. Theater Bellevue, (Thur, Fri 20.30), €20 Ballet: Celebrating Rudi van Dantzig Van Dantzig was artistic director of Het Nationale Ballet for 22 years and has created over 50 choreographies along the way. Now that he turns 75, the occasion is celebrated by showcasing three of Van Dantzig’s most important choreographies, plus one by Toer van Schayk, his friend and colleague of many years. Het Muziektheater, (Thur, Sat, Wed 20.15, Sun 14.00), €30/€37 Festival: Amsterdam Fringe Festival | TF Now taking place at 15 locations and featuring 50 productions, this annual theatre festival has grown considerably but still manages to maintain its underground edge and open policies. Crucially, this year there’s a nice selection of performances with English surtitles. TF-1 offerings are last season’s hits; TF-2 is the Fringe; TF-3 is a bit boring unless you work in the industry; while TF-4 is Flemish.

See www.tf-1.nl and www.amsterdamfringefestival.nl.

Various locations, (Thur-Sun), various prices Theatre: TF-1: Wuivend Graan The latest play from Wim T Schippers is about an eminent professor giving a public lecture about ethics. In the audience: his mother, his daughter, his wife and his girlfriend—a fact that soon gives rise to hilarious family feuds. With Titus Muizelaar and Kees Hulst, who was nominated for this year’s Louis D’Or for the role. Stadsschouwburg, (Fri, Sat 20.30), €12.50-€29.50

Lekker Bezig

Maud Gottgens prowls the streets for fashion ‘It’s difficult for young designers to get noticed nowadays.

They want to do their own thing, not be incorporated in big commercial companies. So they have to find a way to be seen.

That’s where Streetlab comes in. We function as a platform where young designers not only meet each other but also the big fish that can help them get ahead. Yes, sometimes that means they get to work for a commercial company like Nike.

But even though you want to stand on your own feet, commercial companies can teach you a lot.

‘After last year’s Streetlab festival at Westergasterrein, we wanted to escape the city. That’s why this year’s event is in Zuidoost. It’s a very inspirational place. People really take care of their style. It’s the cradle of street culture.

‘We even had to use a different approach to shape this programme. In the city, designers begged to join. This time around we had to convince people that it would be great if they did.

First, they’d be like: “What do you want?” But now we have a great mix between city people and locals from Zuidoost. The metro is a big part of it, since it connects the two.

‘You don’t want to get stuck in that inner circle, you have to keep moving to stay in tune with what is happening. Two years ago, it was hiphop. Last year, it was New Wave left, right and centre. This year, people seem to be getting sick of neoncolours, so it’s tilting towards emo. You could say there’s a bit more of the dark side showing on the streets.’

Streetlab Zuidoost 10-13 September, by Station Bijlmer ArenA www.streetlab.nl

By Station Amsterdam Bijlmer ArenA, (Thur-Sat), free, €5 (Fri, Sat after 18.00) Art/Performance: Aerosol Bridge Club International graffiti artists gather here to paint a gigantic, colourful mural while the sun is shining. Spray cans will pile up till it’s complete on Sunday. Mercator Speelplaats, (Thur-Sun), free Design: Inside Design Amsterdam A four day feast of contemporary design. More than 80 shops, hotels, galleries, restaurants and museums form an inspirational design route, with the Lloyd Hotel acting as the headquarters as it experiences a complete design metamorphosis. See www.elle.nl/inside_design. Various locations, (Thur-Sun), €9.50

Dance: Spiegel Another chance to catch the retrospective programme that Flemish choreographer and director Wim Vandekeybus compiled to mark the 20th anniversary of his dance company Ultima Vez. Spiegel features highlights of his works from the past two decades. Stadsschouwburg, (Tues 20.30), €10-€27.50

Art/Performance: Spielplatz at Sugar Factory A playground and stage for both the artists and the audience, offering a series of art installations, performances and shows. The interior will be completely transformed into an art salon with many small cabinets and separate spaces where performances and acts can take place. The smaller shows can only be watched by a few spectators at a time, so plan your time. Sugar Factory, (Fri 19.00), €10

EVENTS

Festival: De Rode Loper Diverse cultural events for young and old, spread throughout 21 locations and venues in Amsterdam-Oost. See festival.rodeloper.org. Various locations, (Fri-Sun), free Festival: Upperground Festival Neighbourhood party with creative servings of art, fashion, film and music.

Czaar Peterstraat, (Sat 10.30-late), free

Market: Sale#4 Sale is a pop-up market and guerilla store, where small-scale and individual designers can show and sell their work to the public. The theme for this edition is ‘slowness’. Oude Kerk, (Sat, Sun), free Discussion: The Globalised Crystal Ball #9 Discussing food security in the international system of tomorrow. Who will feed China and India? Will there be enough food and will it be distributed properly? In English. De Balie, (Thur 20.00), €8 Festival: Streetlab Zuidoost The latest instalment of Streetlab aims to brighten up Zuidoost this week, encouraging full participation from locals in doing so. Located by the ArenA, the area will be overflowing with fashion, markets, art and music performances designed to excite younger audiences, and occasionally overflowing into nearby locations, too. See Short List and www.streetlab.nl.

By Judith Hornman

Party: Block Party Young talents show off their skills in Osdorp, celebrating a new season of events. Studio West, (Sat 13.30-18.00), free Art: Maak wat moois van al die rotzooi After going door-to-door in the Oosterpark area, requesting large pieces of rubbish to turn into artwork, a group of artists tries to construct something beautiful from all they collected. A very temporary display, it will be ritually closed the next day, and picked up by grofvuil. Art Cage, (Sat 14.00), free Fashion: Catwalk Training A fun workshop that’s part of Mediamatic’s MeMeMe. Ex-model Kim Vos leads the way, but it’s nothing too serious or formal.

As the event’s tag reads, it’s ‘not just for models’.

Space is limited, however, so sign-up at www.mediamatic.net/ikikik. Mediamatic, (Sat 16.00), €25 Festival: Noorderparkfestival Festive happenings in Noord promising music, theatre and fireworks. Acts

Photo by Joost Benthem

include Giovanca, Fouradi and The Partysquad, plus much more diverse family fun. See www.noorderparkfestival.nl. Florapark, (Sat 16.00-23.30, Sun 12.00-21.00), free

ART

Festival: Jalan Jalan Zomerfeest A free celebration for all residents of the Indische Buurt. Inside and outside of Studio K there’s music, fashion, theatre and comedy. Studio K, (Sat 19.30), free Open Ateliers: Openbare Werken Ruigoord The planets must be lining up to bring all these numbers together: the 35th year of Ruigoord and the 5th year of their Open Studios sees Simon Vinkenoog (80) and Niels Hamel (75) participating in the raw artistic energy that keeps Ruigoord village alive. Walk through and see what they’ve been up to. Ruigoord, (Sat, Sun 12.00-18.00), free

Opening

Festival: De Stad Als Podium This weekend it’s Haarlem’s culture bursting loose. This isn’t an official Uitmarkt-style event. No, there’s actually some quality control here. It’s also the case that the Saturday evening portion requires a ticket, but that’s fair enough. As per usual, Patronaat hosts the best of the musical selections, including Brainpower with the Holland Symfonia, Voicst and zZz. Sunday brings more diverse offerings of art, theatre, comedy and books.

See www.destadalspodium.nl. Various locations, Haarlem, (Sat, Sun), free/€15

Pierre Paulin—Artifort’s Artist Chic furniture designer Paulin worked for Dutch label Artifort in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s creating such memorably sleek and cushy chairs as the Ribbon, Tongue, Mushroom, Orange Slice and Tulip. This exhibition shows not only his work, but also a rare glimpse at the man everyone heard about but rarely saw.

ANNO (Fri-Sun 12.00-17.00), opens Thursday, until 16 November

Event: Open Monumentendagen Support your local monument. All over town, buildings are opening their doors, hosting special exhibits and putting on special guided tours, allowing you a rare glimpse beyond their walls, or possibly behind-the-scenes.

The special theme for this year is ‘Traces’, delving into archaeological facets and buildings’ histories.

See www.openmonumentendag.nl. Various locations, (Sat, Sun), free Literature/Music: CrimeJazz Recurring spoken word performances blending with hiphop, jazz, folk, soul and music styles. Tonight: DJ/poet Charlie Dark shares a story called Have Box Will Travel that takes you from a small bedroom in South London to the world of the Super DJ in the 1980s. Podium Mozaïek, 20.00, free Festival: Kijk op de Wijk Mainly a gathering for the young, but the oldies are welcome, too. Offers a young person’s information market and activities like music, art, theatre, dance and sport. See www.westerparkkunst.nl. Westergasfabriek, (Sun 13.00-19.00), free

Censuur! Exhibition offering an overview of groups, institutions and individuals who’ve had dealings with censorship and the various forms of resistance against it, dating from the 17th century to the present. Persmuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00 -17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), opens Thursday, until 9 November

Activist Videoclips A PLANETART presentation of several rebellion videoclips, shocking film material and confrontational works of art. Volkskrantgebouw (Mon-Fri 12.00-17.00, Sat 14.00-17.00), opens Friday, until 18 October Jong Talent ‘08 End exam works from 29 students of the 12 Dutch art academies, all nominated for the Kunstprijs voor Jong Talent.

ArtOlive (Fri-Sun 12.00 -17.00), opens Friday, closing Sunday Living Apart Together One night only: group exhibition with videos, ceramics, photos and neon loveliness by 18 artists. For those desperate for one last summery act, there’s a BBQ from 19.00-21.00.

Petersburg Project Space (Sat 18.00-00.00), opens Saturday The Touch of Dick Evers Action and body painting. Aromatique (Fri-Sun 12.30 -17.30), opens Saturday, until 16 January 2009 Structures Group exhibition that examines the structure of the art world from the perspective of the artist. Souterrain (Thur-Sun 12.00-17.00), opens Sunday, until 7 December

Does my bum look big in this? Does it really matter? Food is so 20th Century. Visit The Globalised Crystal Ball on Thursday.

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AGENDA: ART

Niemand kan het Images that inspired former photographer Hans Aarsman’s theatre piece of the same name, which also premieres on opening night in the same building. De Brakke Grond (Mon 10.00-18.00, Tues-Fri 10.00-20.30, Sat 13.00-20.30, Sun 13.0017.00), opens Tuesday, until 26 October

Gay Games Amsterdam 1998—10 jaar later Photos and memorabilia about the Amsterdam Gay Games. Centrale Bibliotheek (Daily), until 8 October

Museums

De Kabbala—Graven van Safed Photos of the cemetery in the Israeli city of Safed. Nederlands Uitvaart Museum Tot Zover (Mon-Fri 13.00 -17.00), until 12 October

Resistance in Belgium 1940-1945 Contemporary portraits of Belgian resistance fighters by French photographer Jean-Marc Gourdon. Verzetsmuseum (Tues-Fri 10.00 -17.00, Sat, Sun 11.00 -17.00), closing Sunday Kors van Bennekom—Kors’s Choice An exhibition celebrating the 75th birthday of the Amsterdam photographer Kor van Bennekom, the street photographer, theatre photographer and family photographer, whose remarkable oeuvre reflects the history of the Netherlands in the second half of the 20th century. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), closing Sunday Me! Me! Me! An interactive exhibition that touches on self representation on the internet and fashion, on the far–reaching consequences of modern communication and on our self image and the way we experience the world around us. The exhibition also highlights our own cultural potential with a minimal ecological footprint. In the process, art and fashion activists Andrea Crews will transform Mediamatic’s new location into a world fashion centre. Mediamatic Tues-Sat 11.00 -17.00, Sun 12.00 -17.00, closing Sunday NL28 Olympic Fire An exhibition in which scale models, film, debate and theatre help visitors to imagine that the Netherlands is organising the Olympic Games in 2028, a century after the Games in Amsterdam. Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), Rotterdam, until 21 September Gewoon Anders! Exhibition revolving around alternative sexual lifestyles which, during the turn of the 21st century, spawned a wealth of images. With over 100 pieces by some 35 artists, including Gilbert & George, Nan Goldin, Marlene Dumas, Wolfgang Tillmans, Marlene McCarty, Rachid Ben Ali and a nine-metre high monumental statue of David, in bright pink and canary yellow, by HansPeter Feldmann. CoBrA Museum (Tues-Sun 11.00-17.00), until 21 September Rogier Verkade: Recht in Beeld Triptych photo sets; two of the photos are Creative Commons licensed images from sites like Flickr, with Verkade creating a third image to complete the trio. Centrale Bibliotheek (Daily), until 28 September Hacking IKEA Tired of having the same decor and furniture as everyone else on the street? This exhibition serves to remind that IKEA products are far from holy, and are actually easy to modify. While some designers seek to improve upon the originals, others thrive on distorting usage. Take inspiration from the ideas displayed and rebuild your furniture. Platform 21 (Wed-Sun 14.00-21.00), until 28 September Deep Screen—Art in Digital Culture Contemporary multidisciplinary works of art which are all in some way marked by today’s digital culture. The jury, chaired by guest curator Andreas Broeckmann, has selected 18 artists out of the 200-plus submissions. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 30 September The Vincent Award 2008 Do artists improve if you dangle €50,000 in front of them? Artists short-listed for this biennial European award include: Francis Alÿs (Belgium), Liam Gillick (UK), Deimantas Narkevicius (Lithuania) and Rebecca Warren (UK). Working with diverse media, their works remain on display through summer, with the prize ceremony on 12 September. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.0018.00), until 30 September Presence of Mind—A Choice from the Collection

by Wolfgang Tillmans The Stedelijk Museum regularly invites artists to select from the collection, coloured only by their own artistic perspective. This time, the German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans (1968) offers a fresh perspective amidst the context of his own oeuvre. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.0018.00), until 30 September The Best Designed Books 2007 This year 33 books have been selected out of all those published in the Netherlands in 2007. As in previous years, the museum is supplementing the selection on show with a separate category: this time, children’s books of exceptionally good design. Stedelijk Museum CS (Daily 10.00-18.00), until 30 September

Kees van Bohemen Overview exhibition showing paintings and gouaches by the artist (1950-1985).

Jan van der Togt Museum (Wed-Sun 13.00-17.00), Amstelveen, until 10 October

‘Druksel prints’ by Werkman A presentation by the Stedelijk Museum dedicated to the ‘druksel prints’ of Hendrik Werkman, who, in the ’20s, developed the technique of printing parts of a print one at a time to compile the total image on a page. Van Gogh Museum (Mon-Thur, Sat, Sun 10.00-18.00, Fri 10.00-22.00), until 12 October Malick Sidibé Malian photographer (b. 1935, Soloba) who, from the early ’60s on, snapped portraits and various engagements of local society, from football matches to weddings and Christmas Eve celebrations, which now offer insight into the people’s lives shortly after winning their independence. Sidibé was one of the first African photographers to gain recognition in the West.

Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.00-21.00), until 15 October Stad uit de School Designs by former students of the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. ARCAM (TuesSat 13.00-17.00), until 25 October Black is Beautiful A journey of discovery though the history of art, which for the first time aims to highlight the attractiveness of the black person in the art of the Lowlands. It turns out, many great masters have portrayed black people. Their fascination will be illustrated in 135 paintings, drawings and manuscripts from collections here and abroad, including artists like Rembrandt, Breitner, Sluijters, Appel and Dumas. Nieuwe Kerk (Fri-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur 10.00-22.00), until 26 October Inside Out Personal portraits in word and image show how youths deal with religion and the part it plays in their daily lives. Bijbels Museum (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 2 November Sonic Voices, Rocking Hard Audio artist Nathalie Bruys co-curates this exhibition, showing a personal selection from very diverse approaches, each making use of sound and music. The works have been created by young artists with highly varied backgrounds, all with a sincere love of music, audio and art in common. Montevideo/Time Based Arts (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 2 November The Hyena Men & Honey Collectors Photos by 2008 KLM Paul Huf Award winner Pieter Hugo, made while traveling in Nigeria with a group of animal charmers and their hyenas, monkeys and snakes in tow. Foam (Sat-Wed 10.00-18.00, Thur, Fri 10.0021.00), until 2 November Een Juweel van Een Tas Cool jewels and bags in a retrospective which celebrates Hester van Eeghen’s 20 years of design. There’s also 24 new bags designed for this exhibition. Tassenmuseum Hendrikje (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 6 November 24-hour Indonesia Glimpse the daily life of contemporary Indonesia. Eight different crews across Indonesia filmed during a 24-hour period. Tropenmuseum (Daily 10.00-17.00), until 16 November Grafisch Gezelschap De Luis Retrospective of works by artist group De Luis, which caused a furore with their often poetic and bizarre output between 1960 and 1980. Rembrandthuis (Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 11.00-17.00), until 16 November Birth Copulation Death Drawings by Frank van Hemert. Teylers Museum (Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00), Haarlem, until 22 November Atlas Maior. De wereld van Blaeu Exquisite examples of Joan Blaeu’s maps, made in Amsterdam’s Golden Era, when the industry of cartography was in full bloom. UvA: Special Collections Library (Mon-Fri 10.00 -17.00, Sat, Sun 13.00-17.00), until 23 November Cy Twombly: Photographs 1951-2007 Photos by the renowned American artist, in celebration of his 80th birthday, As a photographer, Twombly still has the eye of a painter, who explores rather than captures his subjects—still lifes, flowers, interiors, seascapes. His ‘dry prints’, a specialised version of colour prints from a copy machine, are being shown for the first time in the Netherlands. Huis Marseille (Tues-Sun 11.00-18.00), until 23 November

The final few days of Resistance in Belgium.

15

16

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AGENDA: ART/ADDRESSES

Art of the State Photographs and video works by sixteen artists from Israel. Through their works they reflect upon their country: the community in which they live, the numerous cultural and religious differences among Israel’s population and the current political situation. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 30 November

Art: Opening

Hendrik Werkman: The Blue Barge Exhibition containing Werkman’s preparatory studies for the suites of prints he made as an act of resistance for The Blue Barge during WWII. The most famous of these is Chassidische Legenden. Joods Historisch Museum (Daily 11.00-17.00), until 30 November

Galleries Naturellement Diverse works by 19 young and talented artists. Walls Gallery (Wed-Sun 12.00-17.00), closing Friday Homo Urbanus—Homo Sapiens? An outdoor exhibition promoting young artists from Latvia.

Westergasfabriek (Daily 12.00-20.00), closing Monday Aerosol Symphonies Part II After the success of last summer’s collaborations, this concept, which sees classical music and street art collide, is back for a sequel. Participants include Laser 3.14, Two Things, Maoma, Modderfokker, The London Police, SIT, Juice, Peter Pontiac, Def P, Hugo Kaagman, Blade, Quik, Weazel, Wayne Horse and quite a few more. Yes, it’s hip to be square. GO Gallery (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00, Sun 13.00-17.00), closing Tuesday New Drawing Exhibition Gothic funny nightmare graphics by Ewan Cameron. De Nieuwe Anita various times, closing Tuesday Dirk Bakker New paintings. Beeldend Gesproken (Wed, Thurs 13.30-18.30, Sat 14.00-17.00), until 20 September Between Dark and White First part of a trilogy of exhibitions by Erica van Loon, Erik Olofsen and Anami Schrijvers. Featured are varied works inspired by the theme ‘Mental Space’. For each installment, one of the trio will take the lead. P/////AKT (Thur-Sun 14.00-18.00), until 21 September Group Exhibition Featuring Joris Woertman (installations) and photographers Emmy Beenken and Bas van Tol. Galerie Bart (Thur, Fri 11.00-18.00, Sat 12.0017.00), until 27 September Young Identities Teenage portraits by Jasper Groen.

See Short List. Melkweg Galerie (Wed-Sun 13.0020.00), until 28 September Stefan à Wengen—Nightology Paintings by the Swiss artist. Witzenhausen Gallery (Hazenstraat) (Thur-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 4 October John O’ Carroll Drawings, paintings, books and sculptures by the English artist, much of it based on archaeological findings, which he witnesses firsthand two months every summer, making accurate drawings at digging sites in Egypt. Galerie Roger Katwijk (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 4 October Dan Walsh New minimalistic works from the American artist coming out of Brooklyn, New York. Slewe Gallery (Tues-Sat 14.00-17.00), until 4 October Silent Times Drawings and oil pastels from Lies Neve. AYAC’S (Fri, Sat 13.00-17.30), until 4 October Soul Mirrors Travel through nightmares and fairy tales, as seen through the work of Andrea Lehman, Griekse kunstenaar Tassos Missouras and Zwitser Leopold Rabus. Galerie Hof & Huyser (Tues-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 4 October Delight Group exhibition with artists inspired by various African countries and cultures. Arti et Amicitiae (Tues-Sun 13.00-18.00), until 5 October Leven op de maan Recent works on paper by Tomas Hillebrand and Marijke Sjollema. Galerie Smits (WedSat 13.30-17.30), until 8 October Neil Clements, Alex Dordoy, Morag Keil Och! Three Scottish artists present their latest paintings and installations. Grimm Fine Art (Thur-Sun 12.0018.00), until 9 October Homer This three screen slide installation by veteran artist Pablo Pijnappel follows a narrative about his friend’s move to a small Alaskan fishing village called Homer. Like much of his oeuvre, this piece employs methods of cinematic deconstruction and collage to tell a more or less linear story. Galerie Juliette Jongma (Wed-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 11 October Hinke Schreuders, Manon Bovenkerk, Awoiska van der Molen Embroideries, drawings and pho-

Art in Redlight Oude Kerk, starts Sunday 14 September until Sunday 5 October The Red Light District is a hotbed of industriousness; a port of call for ladies of the night, seamen and designers. Now for the fourth year in a row, you can discover a mixed group of painters, sculptors, designers, photographers and multimedia artists displaying their work in the area. Mon-Sat 11.00-17.00, Sun 13.00-17.30

tographs from the three talented artists. Wetering Galerie (Wed-Sat 12.30-17.30), until 11 October Better Spectacles Recent works on paper by Nik Christensen, who reinvents everyday objects, setting them in the foreground of figurative landscapes.

Galerie Gabriel Rolt (Wed-Sat 12.00-18.00), until 11 October Spade-Scrape Artist James Beckett pays hommage to Wilhelm Riphahn, city architect in pre-war Cologne. Van Zijll Langhout (Mon-Fri 11.00-17.00), until 15 October The Photo Academy Award 2008 Starring the shortlisted works. Among the prizes: an exhibition in Foam and publication in de Volkskrant and Elle. Fotogram (Mon-Thur 09.30-21.00, Fri, Sat 09.30-17.00), until 17 October Foreign Ground Works by young internationals: Erik de Bree, Danielle Itzhaqi, Yehudit Mizrahi and Masha Osipova. Ververs Gallery (Thur-Sat 12.00-17.30), until 17 October Usable Pasts, Concerted Forgettings Group exhibition examining national paradoxes, identities and histories, with a focus on collective cultural memory.

Part of SMART’s grand reopening, celebrating the completion of work to the 4000 square metre lab building, which now boasts six gallery spaces, an auditorium/theatre, a reading room, two cinemas, ten artists’ studios, a digital suite and cafe/restaurant LAB111. Come for the exhibition, stay for the countless other offerings. SMART Project Space (Mon-Sat 12.00-22.00, Sun 14.00-22.00), until 25 October Ingrid Baars Powerful images of the female form built up with various photographic layers and elements. Blow Up Gallery (Thur, Fri 14.00-18.00, Sat 13.00-18.00), until 25 October Blueprint Room New work from Rijksakademie resident Lotte Geeven. Mart House (Thur-Sat 13.00-18.00), until 11 August 2009

There really are many more art listings online at www.amsterdamweekly.nl/art.

ADDRESSES 11 Oosterdokskade 3-5, 625 5999 ANNO Westerstraat 35/49 ARCAM Prins Hendrikkade 600, 620 4878 Aromatique Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 11b, 624 0044 Art Cage Domselaerstraat 120 Arti et Amicitiae Rokin 112, 624 5134 ArtOlive Polonceaukade 17, 675 8504 AYAC'S Keizersgracht 166, 638 5240 Badcuyp 1e Sweelinckstraat 10, 675 9669 De Balie Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10, 553 5151 Beeldend Gesproken Borgerstraat 102, 612 1847 Bethaniënklooster Barndesteeg 6, 625 0078 Bijbels Museum Herengracht 366-368, 624 2436 Bimhuis Piet Heinkade 3, 788 2150 Bitterzoet Spuistraat 2, 521 3001 Blijburg Bert Haanstrakade 2004, 416 0330 Blow Up Gallery Hazenstraat 67, 665 3435 Boekhandel Vrolijk Paleisstraat 135, 623 5142 De Brakke Grond Nes 45, 626 6866 Cafe Pakhuis Wilhelmina Veemkade 576, 419 3368 Cafe Sappho Vijzelstraat 103, 423 1509 Carré Amstel 115-125, 524 9452 Casablanca Muziek Zeedijk 26, 06 1220 0519 Centrale Bibliotheek Oosterdokskade 143, 523 0900 Church Kerkstraat 50-52 Club JVG Jan van Galenstraat 24 CoBrA Museum Sandbergplein 1-3, Amstelveen, 547 5050 Concertgebouw Concertgebouwplein 2-6, 671 8345 Consortium Veemkade 570, 06 2611 8950 Cotton Club Nieuwmarkt 5, 626 6192 Desmet Studios Plantage Middenlaan 4A, 521 7100 De Duif Prinsengracht 756 English Reformed Church Begijnhof 48, 624 9665 Foam Keizersgracht 609, 551 6546 Fotogram Korte Prinsengracht 33, 624 9994

Frascati Nes 63, 626 6866 Galerie Bart Bloemgracht 2, 320 6208 Galerie Gabriel Rolt Elandsgracht 34, 785 5146 Galerie Hof & Huyser Bloemgracht 135, 420 1995 Galerie Juliette Jongma Gerard Douplein 23, 463 6904 Galerie Roger Katwijk Lange Leidsedwarsstraat 198-200, 627 3808 Galerie Smits Fokke Simonszstraat 29, 06 43001833 Gemeentemuseum Stadhouderslaan 41, Den Haag, 070 338 1111 Getto Warmoesstraat 51 GO Gallery Prinsengracht 64, 422 9580 Grimm Fine Art Hazenstraat 24, 422 7227 Huis Marseille Keizersgracht 401, 531 8989 iLLUSEUM Witte de Withstraat 120, 770 5581 Istituto Italiano Keizersgracht 564, 626 5314 Jan van der Togt Museum Dorpsstraat 50, Amstelveen, 641 5754 Joods Historisch Museum Jonas Daniel Meijerplein 2-4, 531 0310 KHL Koffiehuis Oostelijke Handelskade 44, 779 1575 KIT Tropentheater Mauritskade 63, 568 8711 Maloe Melo Lijnbaansgracht 163, 420 4592 Mart House Prinsengracht 529, 627 5187 Mediamatic Vijzelstraat 68, 638 9901 Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409, 531 8181 Melkweg Lijnbaansgracht 234a, 531 8181 Mercator Speelplaats Orteliuskade Molly Malone's Oudezijds Kolk 9, 624 1150 Montevideo/Time Based Arts Keizersgracht 264, 623 7101 Muiderpoorttheater 2e van Swindenstraat 26, 692 5421 Muziekgebouw Piet Heinkade 1, 788 2010 Het Muziektheater Amstel 3, 625 5455 Nederlands Architectuurinstituut Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, 010 440 1200 Nederlands Uitvaart Museum Tot Zover Kruislaan 124, 694 0482 De Nieuwe Anita Frederik Hendrikstraat 111, 06 4150 3512 Nieuwe Kerk entrance on the Dam, 638 6909 Noorderkerk Noordermarkt 44, 626 6436 OCCII Amstelveenseweg 134, 671 7778 Oosterkerk Kleine Wittenburgerstraat 1, 627 2280 Orgelpark Orgelpark, 51 58111 OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 Oude Kerk Oudekerksplein 23, 625 8284 P/////AKT Zeeburgerpad 53, 06 5427 0879 Panama Oostelijke Handelskade 4, 311 8680 Paradiso Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521 Persmuseum Zeeburgerkade 10, 692 8810 Petersburg Project Space Frans de Wollantstraat 84 Platform 21 Prinses Irenestraat 19, 344 9449 Podium Mozaïek Bos en Lommerweg 191, 580 0380 Polanentheater Polanenstraat 174, 682 1311 PRIK Spuistraat 109, 06 4544 2321 Rembrandthuis Jodenbreestraat 4, 520 0400 Ruigoord Ruigoord 15, 497 5702 Saarein Elandsstraat 119, 623 4901 Skek Zeedijk 4-8, 427 0551 Slewe Gallery Kerkstraat 105A, 625 7214 SMART Project Space Arie Biemondstraat 105-113, 427 5953 Souterrain Messinastraat 38 Stadsschouwburg Leidseplein 26, 624 2311 Stedelijk Museum CS Oosterdokskade 5, 573 2911 Stubnitz Odinakade, NDSM-werf Studio K Timorplein 62, 692 0422 Studio West Osdorpplein Sugar Factory Lijnbaansgracht 238, 627 0008 Tassenmuseum Hendrikje Herengracht 573, 524 6452 Teylers Museum Spaarne 16, Haarlem, 023 516 0960 Theater Bellevue Leidsekade 90, 530 5301 Tropenmuseum Linnaeusstraat 2, 568 8200 Tuin Park Ons Buiten Riekerweg 15 UvA: Special Collections Library Oude Turfmarkt 129, 525 2141 Van Gogh Museum Paulus Potterstraat 7, 570 5200 Van Zijll Langhout Brouwersgracht 161, 06 2825 9620 Ververs Gallery Hazenstraat 54 Verzetsmuseum Plantage Kerklaan 61, 620 2535 Volkskrantgebouw Wibautstraat 150 Walls Gallery Prinsengracht 737 The Waterhole Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 49, 620 8904 Westergasfabriek Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 586 0710 Westerliefde Klönneplein 4-6 Westerunie Klönneplein 4-6 Wetering Galerie Lijnbaansgracht 288, 623 6189 Winston Kingdom Warmoesstraat 129, 623 1380 Witzenhausen Gallery (Hazenstraat) Hazenstraat 60 Zaal 100 De Wittenstraat 100, 688 0127

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

Film review

AGENDA: FILM

By Marie-Claire Melzer

Sita Sings the Blues Opens KLIK! Amsterdam Animation Festival Friday at Kriterion.

BETTY BOOP MEETS BOLLYWOOD Nina Paley’s colourful and original animation showers audiences in love, laughter and sadness.

What is it with men that makes them suddenly grow cold on you, without any logical explanation? It’s a question that womankind has pondered for centuries.

FILM

At least all the fretting has produced some beautiful art, such as this wonderful animation film, written and directed

by American cartoonist Nina Paley.

against one another. As the gang falls apart, we learn the terrible truth about the past and how a brother's love inspired violent retribution. Directed by Shane Meadows. 86 min. NDSM-werf, De Nieuwe Anita Tricks A Polish coming-of-age comedy directed by Andrzej Jakimowski. In Polish with Dutch subtitles. 95 min.

NDSM-werf

Festival

New this week

Klik! Amsterdam Animation Festival It only started last year, but Klik!, the Amsterdam Animation Festival, seems to have grown quite a bit already. For the whole weekend, Kriterion’s screens will be filled with animated shorts and features coming from all over the world.

Opening film is the delicious Sita Sings the Blues (see feature) by American animator Nina Paley, a jazzed-up interpretation of the Indian Ramayana epic. See article above and 3 Questions, p.19. Kriterion

Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis A smash box office hit in France, this effervescent comedy is about prejudices and the differences between the north and south of France. To help his depressed wife, post office manager Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad) tries to cheat his way into a transfer to the Côte d’Azur, but when he’s discovered, he’s relegated to the dreaded Nord-Pas-de-Calais region with its freezing cold weather and inhabitants who speak the ‘Ch’timi’ dialect. But lo and behold, Abrams actually likes the North, and befriends locals, especially postman Antoine (Dany Boon, who also cowrote and directed the film). Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis loses parts of its fun for non-francophone audiences, but there’s still enough left to enjoy this gentle and hilarious story. In French and Ch’timi with Dutch subtitles. (GR) 106 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Open Air The Bothersome Man An existential black comedy in which the hapless Andreas appears to commit suicide only to find himself in a bleak afterlife that’s very similar to life on Earth, minus the taste, feel and soul. The stabs at our society in which everything has become a commodity are sharp enough to entertain without turning the film into an old school left wing lecture, and the dark humour meshes very well with the well-dosed horror elements.

This film won the Black Tulip award at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival in 2007. In Norwegian with Dutch and French subtitles. (LvH) 94 min. NDSM-werf Dead Man's Shoes Two brothers return to the home town they left years before. They are close, but very different: Richard is strong and purposeful, Anthony younger, slightly retarded and more hesitant. Everything Richard does, Anthony innocently mimics. They set up camp in the hills overlooking the town, reminiscing over their shared past. But they're not here to reminisce.

Richard is here for revenge. He knows who he wants and he knows where they live. The town he left eight years ago is still run by the same gang of small-time drug dealers and thugs. One by one, he tracks them down, striking fear into their hearts and turning them

Calimucho Director Eugenie Jansen’s new film follows the travails of a small family circus in the Netherlands that has difficulties breaking even. Here Jansen utilises performers from an actual circus, with its melting pot of characters coming from Germany, Romania, Morocco and the Netherlands. And to add one more ethnic twist, the circus director’s daughter has an affair with a young hired-hand from Morocco. With Dicky Kilian, Ellie Teeuw and Tarek Hannoudi, written by Natasha Gerson. Het Ketelhuis, Rialto Deception You don’t have to be a genius to find yourself several steps ahead of this helpfully titled mystery thriller, which opens with a nerdy financial auditor (Ewan McGregor) being aggressively befriended by a slick Manhattan executive (Hugh Jackman). Sensing the problem perhaps, director Marcel Langenegger rolls out a series of hot sex scenes as McGregor is initiated into a secret club that sends him to swank hotel rooms for one-

Guns are cool. Apparently. Well, the target audience for Wanted thinks so.

The starting point for this rather personal project was the breakdown of her marriage. After following her husband to India, where he was temporarily stationed for work, he began behaving coldly and disinterested towards her.

Left on her own, she started reading The Ramayana, the epic Hindu poem about the doomed love of King Rama and Sita.

Soon after, Paley’s husband let her know he wasn’t coming back. She was heartbroken, but gradually recovered—and started working on this film, which draws inspiration from her life, The Ramayana and old jazz songs.

One of the best things about Sita Sings the Blues is its combination of many different styles and genres. Each of the three storylines brings its own visual outlook. The autobiographical story of Nina and Dave, set in contemporary America and India, utilises a style closer to American underground cartoons, with some pencil lines still showing, and unafraid to lack detail. This is undercut with Paley’s humorous interpretation of The Ramayana, borrowing elegant, onedimensional figures from ancient Indian books and paintings. The funniest touch comes from the three wajang dolls who narrate the story. Rather than simply updating the audience, they continually throw in commentary, and in doing so, disagree with each other about the correct interpretation.

And then there is the jazz! Songs from Annette Hanshaw, a jazz singer from the 1920s and 1930s, are visualised by Paley through a female character who is a

night stands with stunning women (Natasha Henstridge, Maggie Q, and a typically game Charlotte Rampling).

Even after the expected happens and McGregor is snared, this unfolds in fairly predictable fashion. Jackman and McGregor throw their best American accents behind the effort, but Michelle Williams seems fairly bored as the sex-club partner who wins McGregor’s heart. (JJ) 108 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Elle s’appelle Sabine French actress Sandrine Bonnaire makes her directorial debut with a documentary about her autistic sister Sabine, intercutting home movies from the past with recent footage. The director wants to make the audience aware of the ravages brought about by inadequate health care systems. The adolescent Sabine was a gorgeous, vivacious and talented woman, but after being institutionalised at the age of 28 for five years, Sabine—now 38—is altered in an overweight, dispirited and sometimes aggressive person. This is extremely shocking to see, but Elle S’Appelle Sabine is not balanced and leaves too many questions unanswered. What actually happened at the psychiatric institution, for instance, is never explained.

A missed opportunity. In French with Dutch subtitles.

(GR) 85 min. Het Ketelhuis, The Movies The Life Before Her Eyes Adapted from a novel by Laura Kasischke, this gauzy drama by Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) is an unfortunate combination of real-life horror and narrative game playing. A high school shooting rampage culminates in two friends (Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri) being held at gunpoint by a deranged classmate, who threatens to kill one of them. From there the movie cuts back and forth between the girls’ friendship leading up to the crisis and events 15 years later, when Wood has aged into an emotionally damaged Uma Thurman. Perelman never overcomes the disjuncture of having two familiar actresses play the same grown character, and despite the endless crosscutting, the two halves settle respectively into ghoulish foreboding and murky psychological drama. (JJ) 90 min. De Uitkijk

Patti Smith: Dream Of Life Photographer Steven Sebring got to hang out with Patti Smith for eleven years and was allowed to bring along both his 16mm and DV cameras. The final result is Patti Smith: Dream Of Life, a documentary in which the rocker bares her

17

charming blend of a Bollywood heroine and Betty Boop—she wears a belly-free outfit and a nose ring, but has Betty’s eyes.

Here Paley mixes elements from Bollywood cinema, such as synchronised dancing and dramatic close-ups, with the imagery of a tragic heroine, while the visual outlook, with its bold colours and clear outlining, is reminiscent of American cartoons from the 1930s.

The sexy female character herself is, of course, a homage to Max Fleischer (who modelled Betty Boop after jazz singers of the era), while the funny background characters pay tribute to Tex Avery. The sad lyricism of Hanshaw’s songs fit perfectly with the story of Nina and Dave, as well as The Ramayana.

There are even some interesting feminist perspectives here, with the film poking at how popular culture glorifies female suffering for the ideal of unconditional love. The director even suggests that, in this respect, maybe so-called modern Western society is not as different as traditional, and supposedly oppressive, Indian culture.

But when it comes to unconditional love, the wajangs disagree. When Nina phones her estranged husband, begging him to take her back, one of the wajang dolls steps in, saying: ‘He mistreated you, he is not talking to you. Why on earth would you still bring him a hot lunch to work every day? Stop it!’ Then another (female) wajang comments: ‘Because it’s unconditional love’. To which the former (male) wajang replies: ‘No, it’s stupid.’ ___

5 word movie review

A Pretty Dated Question Now Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Pathe Tuschinski

soul, telling of the many tribulations of her most recent times. All her friends and loved ones are gone, from Robert Mapplethorpe to Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith, but Smith’s still standing. There’s not much music here, but lots and lots of behind-the-scenes, archive footage, family reunions, and even Patti singing to her cat. (MB) 109 min. Melkweg Cinema Wanted The first foray into Hollywood by Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov feels very much like a bullet ploughing its way through a brainpan, but in a good way. This hyperkinetic action flick defies conventional morality and the rules of nature to deliver a thoroughly enjoyable rollercoaster ride with a surprising sadomasochistic subtext. James McAvoy is excellent as the pencil pusher turned psycho-killer, Morgan Freeman once again easily oozes gravitas, but Angelina Jolie steals the show as the deadly assassin who is appropriately named Fox. Suffice to say, she belongs to the stone cold variety. (LvH) 110 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt, Pathé Tuschinski Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? Morgan Spurlock’s long-awaited follow-up to Super Size Me purports to be a search for Bin Laden, but in fact it’s just a jocular fact-finding tour of the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The director travels around the world, seeks out worthwhile subjects, and puts himself at some risk to pose fairly dim questions, his effort culminating in a Pepsi Generation wrap-up that insists we all want the same things. The narrative emphasises how much dan-

18

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

AGENDA: FILM

The Magnificent Seven John Sturges’s 1960 western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s action classic The Seven Samurai. What was wonderful in the Kurosawa film— the recruiting and training of the mercenaries— becomes formulaic Hollywood fare here, but the iconheavy cast definitely helps out. With Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson and Robert Vaughn. (DK) 126 min. Filmmuseum

Special screenings Across the Universe This marvelous musical set to the Beatles’ songbook deserves a better life than it’s had. It’s the 1960s, and Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a Liverpool ship welder who decides to move to New York.

There he befriends Max (Joe Anderson) and falls in love with his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). They all live together in a bohemian flat in the Greenwich Village until the Vietnam War takes Max away and Revolution knocks at their door. Julie Taymor (Frida) directs. Guest singers include Bono, Joe Cocker and Eddie Izzard.

(MB) 133 min. Melkweg Cinema La chambre verte Intriguing 1978 Francois Truffaut

film, assembled from two short stories by Henry James.

The film-maker himself stars as a journalist whose life is centered on the memory of his dead wife. He meets a young woman (Nathalie Baye) with a similar obsession, and together they construct an altar to all their dead— family, friends, heroes—in an abandoned chapel.

Truffaut attempts a philosophical disquisition on the presence of the lost, the ways in which the dead remain a part of our lives, but his theme can’t escape the morbid eccentricity of his characters. Photographed, in fecund greens and withering yellows, by Nestor Almendros. In French with Dutch subtitles. (DK) 94 min. Filmmuseum

Control In this biopic on singer/songwriter Ian

Curtis, photographer and video director Anton Corbijn dares to be critical: Ian isn’t a tragic hero, but a bit of a wimp who uses his band as an escape from his own incompetence as a husband and father. The film is beautifully shot in black-and-white, though the stark contrasts and grey hues serve mainly to underline the desolation of the Manchester suburbs, and of Ian himself. (BS) 119 min. Melkweg Cinema Evening Susan Minot, with the help of Michael Cunningham (The Hours), adapts her own novel about a dying woman (Vanessa Redgrave) coming to terms with her two daughters (Natasha Richardson and Toni Collette) and memories of her youth in the ’50s (where she’s played by Claire Danes). Despite the show-offy cast, it takes me a while to warm to these people and their self-consciously

ger Spurlock is in and how noble he is to embark on all this while his wife is back in the US expecting their first child; it’s a little insulting to all the real reporters who’ve died in the field looking for hard information, not weak indie comedy. (JJ) 93 min. Pathé Tuschinski

Still playing The Accidental Husband This is a hotchpotch of genres: romcom, screwball comedy and a little Bollywood sauce. Relationships guru and radio host Dr Emma Lloyd (Uma Thurman) advises one of her listeners to call off her wedding with fireman Patrick Sullivan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The jilted Sullivan then decides to give Lloyd a taste of her own medicine, making her hesitate about her upcoming marriage with well-off and dependable businessman Richard Bratton (Colin Firth). Torn between two suitors, the charming Sullivan and the uptight Bratton, you’ll never guess with whom Lloyd will walk to the altar... with its half-hearted script, contrived plot, silly stereotypes and ludicrous coda, The Accidental Husband is unsurprisingly embarrassing. Directed by Griffin Dunne. (GR) 90 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Bangkok Dangerous A sympathetic killer for hire who’s compelled to avenge his best friend, Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) is a precociously world-weary innocent whose ability to focus on his work is attributed in part to the fact that he can’t hear and doesn’t talk. He’s caught up in an audio-visually complex drama that’s better than slick, though it feels pointless—another homage to a kind of film-making that’s had more than it’s share. In Thai with Dutch subtitles. (LA) 105 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt Caos calmo Pietro (Nanni Moretti), while enjoying a day out at the beach with his brother Carlo (Alessandro

Must see:

Across the Universe Melkweg Cinema, 11, 14 September

idyllic settings—as well as to the slick direction of former cinematographer Lajos Koltai—but I was eventually won over. With Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Patrick Wilson and Hugh Dancy. (JR) 116 min. Pathé ArenA

Ex Drummer In this 2007 interpretation of the Flemish novel by Herman Brusselmans, an arrogant writer is convinced by three physically challenged freaks to join their rock band. He decides to lead them in a local band contest to provoke the literary establishment and to get in touch with some ‘real people’ in the process. Flanders was shocked by the profanity and gross images in this pitch-black comedy, but that was exactly the comment that director Koen Mortier was aiming for in his attempt to break through the indifference of the cultural elite towards genuine social problems. In Flemish with Gassman), saves a woman from drowning. When they head home, he finds out his wife has died unexpectedly.

His grief takes him from his TV executive desk to a bench, where he sits every morning waiting for his ten-year-old daughter to finish classes. Life circles around him, and Pietro starts observing all the little bits of action happening in the square, trying to find a new meaning to his existence. Look out for a cameo by Roman Polanski.

Based on the award-winning novel by Sandro Veronesi.

In Italian with Dutch subtitles. (MB) 105 min. The Movies, Pathé Tuschinski, Rialto Cordero de Dios The debut of Argentinean director Lucía Cedrón tells the story of a family torn apart by the military regime of dictator Videla. Its central figure is Guillerma, whose father died during the junta, after which she and her mother fled to Paris. The film opens with the kidnapping of Guillerma’s grandfather in 2002; gradually, Guillerma learns what really happened. The glamorous-looking cast and soft-focus lighting are somewhat out of step with the grim events, yet the film has its moving moments, especially when dealing with Guillerma’s childhood memories. And it is praiseworthy that Cedrón dared to tackle the painful subject of the junta in all its moral complexity. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (MM) 91 min. Rialto Dagen Zonder Lief A group of twentysomething friends, leading their lives in different parts of the world, gather in the small provincial city where they originated.

But their reunion only sparks feelings of disillusionment and sadness. Felix Van Groeningen’s fresh, honest look at generational problems from Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen, already screened at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival and boasts a great jazz score by pianist Jef Neve. 100 min. Filmmuseum

Webtip

‘Johnny Jordaan Jordaan Medley’ www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Oapw_moFQAY

Got a spare three hours? The magnificent Magnolia is back at Studio K.

Dutch subtitles. (MdR) 90 min. Filmmuseum Open Air

Faces John Cassavetes’s galvanic 1968 drama about one long night in the lives of an estranged well-to-do married couple (John Marley and Lynn Carlin) and their temporary lovers (Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel) was the first of his independent features to become a hit, and it’s not hard to see why. It remains one of the only American films to take the middle class seriously, depicting the compulsive, embarrassed laughter of people facing their own sexual longing and some of the emotional devastation brought about by the so-called sexual revolution. Shot in 16-millimeter black and white, Faces often takes an unsparing yet compassionate “documentary” look at emotions. One of the most powerful and influential American films of the 60s. (JR) 129 min. OT301 Dialogue avec mon jardinier This film could just as well have been called ‘Zen and the art of gardening’.

Separated from his wife, a crisp-looking, middle-aged Parisian painter (Daniel Auteuil) retreats to the house he grew up in, in rural France. His gardener there (JeanPierre Darrousin) turns out to be his partner in mischief from their schooldays. While one paints and the other grows vegetables, they comment on the world in front of them. ‘Don’t you look at the sunset, the stars, the fog?’ asks the painter. ‘I don’t usually see much of anything in a fog,’ replies the gardener. What is art to one is garbage to the other, and vice versa. Director Jean Becker has kept the material down-to-earth, and steers away from possible sentimentality with a couple of good laughs. In French with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 109 min. The Movies Le Fils de l’épicier A road movie of sorts, with a very French twist. The story is a bit flimsy: a young man (the grocer’s son of the title) helps his parents when they’re in trouble and sorts himself out along the way. The film’s strength is in its humane view of its characters and painterly eye for the landscape. As Antoine (Nicolas Cazalé) grudgingly drives his dad’s delivery van around, his brusqueness doing little for his sales or relations with the old clientele, we’re treated to breathtaking wideangle shots of Provence. Close friend Claire (Clotilde Hesme), former femme fatale Lucienne (Liliane Rovère) and increasingly senile father Clément (Paul Crauchet) play crucial, and sometimes very funny, roles while Antoine adjusts to his new life. Eric Guirado directed this feel-good film with an eye for the individual. In French with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 96 min. Cinecenter Il y a longtemps que je t’aime Kristin Scott Thomas is a talent who cannot be used often enough. Her characters are usually hard-as-nails socialites, who fanatically guard their real emotions with cynicism and acerbic wit.

In Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I loved you for so long), she has never been more brittle, or so tough. Her Juliette has just been released after 15 years in prison for a crime that seems beyond comprehension. Still, Juliette has refused to defend her actions, even to her younger sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein), who desperately wants to understand. A strong, composed debut by novelist Philippe Claudel. In French with Dutch subtitles. (BS) 115 min. Cinecenter, Cinema Amstelveen, Het Ketelhuis

Keane This sobering drama about a schizophrenic man desperately trying to be normal is finally, after four years, getting a Dutch release. Damian Lewis (Dreamcatcher, Friends & Crocodiles) is superb as the tormented lead, but he is helped by two equally excellent supporting actresses, Amy Ryan (the lousy mother in Gone Baby

Magnolia A wonderful mess. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s third feature (1999), over three hours long, represented a quantum leap in ambition from his previous ouvre. He’s handicapped himself with the worst kind of TV-derived crosscutting among his (ultimately interconnected) miniplots. But the movie has a splendidly deranged essayistic prologue (which tries to justify an outrageous climax), the best Tom Cruise performance ever (incidentally, it’s a scorching critique of his other performances), some delicate work by John C Reilly as a sensitive cop, and provocative material about the unhealthy aspects of hyping whiz kids on TV. (JR) 188 min. Studio K Me Olvide de Vivir Campy soap opera from 1980, loosely based on the life of Spanish romantic crooner Julio Iglesias and, well, starring Julio Iglesias himself. The singer with the honey-like voice and perfect tan plays the role of a star who doesn’t have time for private life, in between all his commitments and requests from fans.

Potentially so bad that it’s actually good. In Spanish. 87 min. Melkweg Cinema One-Eyed Jacks Marlon Brando’s only directorial effort is this eccentric 1961 western about an outlaw (Brando) who revenges himself on a former partner (Karl Malden) by seducing his daughter. There is a strong Freudian pull to the situation (the partner’s name is ‘Dad’) that is more ritualised than dramatised.

The most memorable scenes have a fierce masochistic intensity, as if Brando were taking the opportunity to punish himself for some unknown crime. The bizarre action is set off by the classic Hollywood iconography of the western landscape (photographed by Charles Lang) and the supporting cast: Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, and Elisha Cook Jr. (DK) 141 min. Kriterion

Gone) and Abigail Breslin, who play a woman and her 7year-old daughter living in the same shabby hotel. The scenes between Keane and the little girl are the beating heart of the film, filled with love and sadness—not for who Keane is, but for who he could have been. Directed by Lodge Kerrigan. (BS) 100 min. Filmmuseum

Lemon Tree This bittersweet comedy-drama by Israeli director Eran Riklis tells the story of Salma, a Palestinian widow whose lemon grove stands dangerously close to the new country house of the Israeli Defence Minister.

When an order is issued to cut down the trees for security reasons, her fight to defend them takes on a greater significance. Hiam Abbass, the Anna Magnani of the Middle East, turns in a great performance as Salma, amid a strong supporting cast. In Arabic/Hebrew/English with Dutch subtitles. (MB) 106 min. Rialto Mataharis Three women work at a seedy detective agency in this lively, likable film by Icíar Bollaín (Take My Eyes). Each of the female detectives has her own charm, but all of them are real women—overbites, underbites, bumpy noses and all. Will they sell out? Will a comatose marriage be revived with the help of lovers and lingerie? The empowering choices they eventually make inspire a hearty ‘good for you, girl’. In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (KE) 100 min. Het Ketelhuis Midnight Meat Train This grim and sick adaptation of a story by Clive Barker suffered from a prolonged stay in distribution hell, and the only thing that prevented it from becoming a straight-to-DVD title was a flaming legion of horror fans. They will get what they expected and then some, as director Ryuhei Kitamura assaults your senses like Sam Raimi on acid. The titular subway line is haunted by a Frankensteinian brute (a truly menacing Vinnie Jones) and when a nosy photographer (Bradley Cooper) goes investigating, the situation quickly turns crimson. If you’re looking for the goriest film this year, look no further. (LvH) 85 min. Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt La Noche de los girasoles If you had plans to visit the lovely Spanish countryside for your summer holidays, you might reconsider after watching this grim and downbeat Hitchcockian Spanish art house thriller. A rape and murder in a rural town set up the Rashomonlike structure in which six characters are followed in six seperate chapters, with each chapter cleverly expanding the audience’s knowledge and deftly expanding our point of view. The depravity and dark view of human nature might be too much to stomach for the faint of heart, as every ounce of innocence is squeezed from the film throughout the two hours of running time.

In Spanish with Dutch subtitles. (LvH) 118 min. Kriterion

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

The Panman: Rhythm of the Palms Steelpan player Harry Daniel wants to pass on the traditions of steelpan music to the younger generation so badly that, in his attempts to do so, he jeopardises his family life. When he meets the young and talented Jacko, he believes he’s finally fulfilled his wishes. But when Harry’s glory begins to fade, Jacko turns against him and switches to rock music. Panman, the opening film at the Africa in the Picture festival, is the first independent film production made on the island of Saint Martin and also received the Best Film Award at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. In English with Dutch subtitles. 90 min. Het Ketelhuis, Rialto The Strangers Young lovers Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, arriving at his parents’ remote summer home after a wedding, are terrorised in the wee hours by three masked assailants whose motives are never explained.

Making his debut as writer-director, Bryan Bertino exploits all the old horror standbys—the phony based-on-a-truestory preface, the knock on the door in the dead of night, the eerily skipping record on the turntable, the malevolent figure glimpsed in soft focus over the heroine’s shoulder. There’s nothing remotely new here, but the movie has the taut, queasy feel of an early ’70s drive-in shocker: old-fashioned suspense without any guarantee of old-fashioned mercy. (JJ) 90 min. Pathé ArenA

AGENDA: FILM 3 questions:

Dario van Vree KLIK! Animation Festival, Kriterion, 12-14 September Freelance animator, illustrator and cartoonist Dario van Vree is the twisted mind behind Amsterdam’s hip animation festival, KLIK! Living and breathing animation and illustration, what better person to provide welcome insight into the genre?

Animation for rocking? ‘Muto by Blu. This contains every little ingredient to make it totally rock ’n’ roll: it’s from the streets, has megalomaniacal tendencies and all the poetic quality of a Beck song. It’s a crazy, beautiful artwork with a ‘conceived at the kitchen table’ feel—as far as this can apply to a ten-metre-high, hand-animated wall painting that stalks the streets of Buenos Aires and Baden.’

Wild Child A spoiled Southern Californian (Emma Roberts) is sent off to a strict English boarding school, where she finds herself in the middle of yet another banal across-the-pond romantic comedy. 100 min.

Pathé ArenA, Pathé De Munt

Animation for mellowing? ‘Sheep on the Roof by Remi Schaepman. Once you’re riding that manic tiger we call ‘everyday life’ or ‘nine to five’, it’s hard to get off and relax for a change.

Even chilling out has become a strenuous chore. But what if suddenly, with the help of a dancing sheep on the roof across the street, your life would turn into one big, endless party?’

Edited by Massimo Benvegnù. This week’s films reviewed by Lisa Alspector (LA), Massimo Benvegnù (MB), Shyama Daryanani (SD), Angela Dress (AD), Don Druker (DD), Kate Eaton (KE), Sarah Gehrke (SG), Andrea Gronvall (AG), Jack Helbig (JH), Luuk van Huët (LvH), JR Jones (JJ), Dave Kehr (DK), Iris Maher (IM), Peter Margasak (PM), Mike Peek (MP), Julie Phillips (JP), Gusta Reijnders (GR), Kim Renfrew (KR), Jonathan Rosenbaum (JR), Martin Rubin (MR) and Bregtje Schudel (BS). All films are screened in English with Dutch subtitles unless otherwise noted. Amsterdam Weekly recommends.

Animation for loving? ‘Dji vou veu volti by Benoit Feroumont. Ah, the things people do for love! Sneaking around in courtyards to steal kisses from their beloved princess. Apparently love also makes us sing silly serenades, wrestle with our own subtitles and jump from windows, slapstick-style. Real love calls for perseverance and the willingness to uphold a crazy illusion. Much like making an animated film really.’

FILM TIMES

De Staat van ontkenning daily 20.15.

Thursday 11 until Wednesday 17 September. Times are provided by cinemas and are subject to last-minute changes.

Bikkel Thur, Mon-Wed 17.15 Ciao Stefano Thur, Sun-Wed 20.00, Thur, Mon-Wed also 17.45, Fri, Sat 17.30 The Darjeeling Limited daily 19.45 Factory Girl Thur, Mon-Wed 19.30, Fri 21.00 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Thur, Sun, Mon, Wed 22.15, Fri 18.45 Into the Wild Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 21.30 Julia Thur, Sun-Wed 17.00 Het kleine spookje Laban Wed 14.30 Klik! Amsterdam Animation Festival Fri-Sun La Noche de los girasoles Thur, Sun-Wed 22.00 One-Eyed Jacks Mon 22.00 Sneak Preview Tues 22.15 Wall-E (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 15.00, Sat, Sun also 13.00.

Cavia Van Hallstraat 52-I, 681 1419 Hable con ella Thur, Fri 20.30.

Cinecenter Lijnbaansgracht 236, 623 6615 Elegy daily 16.30, 19.15, 21.45, Sun also 11.00, 13.30 Estômago daily 16.15, 19.00, 21.45, Sun also 11.00, 13.45 Le Fils de l'épicier daily 16.30, 19.30, 22.00, Sun also 11.15, 14.00 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime daily 16.15, 19.00, Sun also 11.00 Savage Grace daily 21.45, Sun also 13.30.

Cinema Amstelveen Plein 1960 2, Amstelveen, 547 5175 Hoe overleef ik mezelf Sat, Wed 15.30, Sun 13.30 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime Sun 15.30, Tues, Wed 20.30 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Thur-Sat 20.30 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Sat, Wed 13.30, Sun 11.30.

Cinema Amstelveen Open Air Stadsplein Amstelveen Volver Fri 21.00.

Filmhuis Griffioen Uilenstede 106, Amstelveen, 444 5100 Irma La Douce Fri 19.30 Sneak Preview Tues 19.30.

Filmmuseum Vondelpark 3, 589 1400 Le Ballon Rouge & Crin-Blanc Thur-Sat 17.15 Black Beauty Sun, Wed 14.00 La chambre verte Thur-Sun 21.45, Mon, Wed 19.45, Tues 22.15 Dagen Zonder Lief Sun 19.00, Mon, Wed 17.30 Green Fish Mon 21.45 Keane Thur-Sat, Tues 17.30, Mon, Wed 21.35 Het kleine spookje Laban Sun, Wed 13.45 The Magnificent Seven Tues 19.30 North by Northwest Sun 16.15 Oasis Wed 21.45 Peppermint Candy Tues 21.45 De Schattenberg Mon, Wed 17.00 Secret Sunshine daily 18.45, Thur-Sun also 21.30, Sun also 16.00 Le Voyage du ballon rouge Thur-Sat 19.30.

Filmmuseum Open Air Vondelpark Ex Drummer Fri 21.45.

Habib Ana Leidsedwarsstraat 93 Garden Sat 19.00.

Het Ketelhuis Haarlemmerweg 8-10, 684 0090 De brief voor de koning Thur-Mon, Wed 16.45, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.15 Calimucho daily 17.15, 19.45, Sat, Sun, Wed also 13.15 Dutch Cocaine Factory daily 19.00 Elle s’appelle Sabine daily 21.45, Sat, Wed also 15.15 Hoe overleef ik mezelf Sat, Sun, Wed 13.00 Iedereen = Dogtroep Sun 11.00, 15.00 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime daily 21.30, Fri-Wed also 17.00 Het kleine spookje Laban Sat, Sun, Wed 12.45 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 15.00 Mataharis Thur-Tues 19.30 The Panman: Rhythm of the Palms daily 21.30

19

Kriterion Roetersstraat 170, 623 1708

Melkweg Cinema Lijnbaansgracht 234A, 624 1777 Across the Universe Thur 19.00, Sun 21.00 Beatlemania Film Night Sat 21.00 Control Fri 21.00 Me Olvide de Vivir Sun 19.00 Patti Smith: Dream Of Life Fri, Sat 19.00.

The Movies Haarlemmerdijk 159-165, 638 6016 Caos calmo daily 17.15, 19.45, 22.00, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.45, Sun also 12.30 Dialogue avec mon jardinier daily 16.45, 21.30, Sun also 12.15 Elle s’appelle Sabine daily 17.30, 19.30, Sun also 13.15 Into the Wild daily 19.00, 21.45 Nim's Eiland Sat, Sun, Wed 15.15 Savage Grace daily 19.15, Sat, Sun, Wed also 14.30 Wall-E daily 17.00, 21.45 Wall-E (NL) Sat, Sun, Wed 15.00, Sun also 13.00.

NDSM-werf TT Neveritaweg 15, 330 5480 The Bothersome Man Sun 21.30 Dead Man's Shoes Fri 21.30 First Kill Sat 21.30 Tricks Thur 21.30.

De Nieuwe Anita Frederik Hendrikstraat 111, 06 4150 3512 Dead Man's Shoes Mon 20.30.

OT301 Overtoom 301, 779 4913 Faces Tues 20.30.

Pathé ArenA ArenA Boulevard 600, 0900 1458 3:10 to Yuma Sat 0.15 The Accidental Husband daily 16.20, 18.30, 20.40, Thur, Fri, MonWed also 11.50, Thur, Mon, Tues also 14.00, Sat also 22.50 Bangkok Dangerous daily 13.00, 15.15, 17.30, Thur-Mon, Wed also 19.45, 22.00, Sat, Sun also 10.45, Sat also 0.20 Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis daily 13.30, 16.00, 18.40, 21.10, Sat, Sun also 11.00, Sat also 23.40 De brief voor de koning Fri-Sun, Wed 14.00, Sat, Sun also 11.20 The Dark Knight (Imax) Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 11.30, 14.40, 17.50, 21.00, Sat 10.40, 13.50, 17.00, 20.20, 23.30 The Dark Knight daily 20.20 Deception daily 13.20, 15.50, 18.20, 20.50, Sat also 10.50, 23.20 Disaster Movie Sat 22.20, 0.20 Elegy daily 19.00

We really are excited about KLIK! You should be too.

Websites: www.klikamsterdam.nl Muto: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuGaqLT-gO4 www.monsieur-albert.be

Evening Tues 13.30 The Forbidden Kingdom daily 18.50, 21.20, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 12.00, Sat also 23.50 Get Smart daily 16.30, 21.30, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 13.50, Sat also 0.00 Hancock Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues 12.50, Thur, Mon, Tues also 15.20 Hellboy II: The Golden Army daily 12.00, 19.10, 21.40 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Thur, Mon, Tues 12.40, 15.30 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Fri-Sun, Wed 14.30, Sat, Sun, Wed also 12.20, 16.40, Sat, Sun also 10.10 The Love Guru daily 17.20, 19.30, 21.50, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 11.50 Mamma Mia! Singalong Wed 21.00 Mamma Mia! The Movie Thur-Tues 20.00 Meet Dave daily 12.10, 14.10, 16.10, 18.10, 20.10, 22.10, Sat, Sun also 10.10 Midnight Meat Train Thur, Mon-Wed 18.30 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor daily 17.40, Sat also 23.30 Nim's Eiland Sat, Sun, Wed 12.15, 14.20, Sat, Sun also 10.00 Sneak Preview Tues 21.00 Star Wars: The Clone Wars (NL) Fri-Sun, Wed 15.20, Sat, Sun, Wed also 12.50, Sat, Sun also 10.30 The Strangers Sat 0.05 Superhero Movie daily 11.40, 13.40, 15.40, 18.00, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed also 22.20, Wed also 20.00 Wall-E Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues 16.40, Thur, Mon, Tues also 14.30 Wall-E (NL) Fri-Sun, Wed 13.15, 15.45, Fri, Sat, Sun also 18.15, Sat, Sun also 10.45 Wanted daily 14.15, 16.50, 19.15, 21.45, Thur-Tues also 20.30, ThurSat, Mon-Wed also 11.45, Sat also 23.00, 0.10 Wild Child Thur-Mon, Wed 12.30, 15.00, Sat, Sun also 10.20 The X-Files: I Want to Believe Sat 23.55 You Don't Mess With the Zohan daily 14.20, 16.45.

Pathé De Munt Vijzelstraat 15, 0900 1458 The Accidental Husband Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.00, 14.15, 16.45, 19.15, 21.45, Sat 10.50, 13.15, 15.45, 18.00, 20.15, 22.30 Bangkok Dangerous Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.10, 14.30, 17.00, 19.30, 22.00, Sat 11.00, 13.30, 16.00, 18.30, 21.00, 23.30 Bienvenue Chez les Ch’tis daily 21.40, Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.45, 16.15, 19.00, Sat also 10.40, 13.10, 15.50, 18.50, Sun also 11.15 The Dark Knight Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 20.15, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon, Wed also 21.10, Thur, Mon, Tues also 13.00, 16.30, Fri, Sun, Wed also 16.45, Sat 17.30, 20.45, 22.15 Deception Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.30, 21.15, Thur, Mon, Tues also 13.15, 15.45, Sat 19.15, 22.00 Disaster Movie Sat 23.25 The Forbidden Kingdom Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.40, 15.20, 20.45, Sun also 10.15, Sat 11.40, 14.20, 17.20, 22.45 Get Smart Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.20, Sat 19.30 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 15.30, 21.20, Thur, Mon, Tues also 12.50, Sat 17.10, 23.00 Kung Fu Panda (NL) Fri, Sun, Wed 12.50, Sun also 10.40, Sat 10.15, 12.20, 14.40 The Love Guru Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 20.00, 22.10, Sat 19.20, 21.30, 23.45 Mamma Mia! The Movie Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 17.45, 20.30, Thur, Fri, Mon-Wed also 12.20, Thur, Mon, Tues also 14.45, Sun also 15.15, Sat 15.30, 18.15, 20.50 Meet Dave Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 14.00, 16.10, Thur, Fri, Mon-Wed also 12.00, Sun also 11.40, Sat 10.20, 12.30, 14.45, 17.15 Midnight Meat Train Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 22.15, Sat 21.45, 23.50 The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.00, Sat 20.00 Sex and the City: The Movie Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 18.10, Sat 19.45

Sneak Preview Tues 21.30 Star Wars: The Clone Wars (NL) Fri, Sun, Wed 14.20, Fri, Wed also 12.10, Sun also 11.50, Sat 10.30, 12.45, 15.15 Superhero Movie Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.10, 15.10, 19.45, Sun also 11.10, Sat 11.20, 13.45, 16.15, 21.15 Wall-E Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.30, 15.00, 17.15, Sun also 10.15, Sat 12.00, 14.30, 17.00 Wall-E (NL) Fri, Sun, Wed 13.15, 15.45, Sun also 10.50, Sat 11.45, 14.15, 16.45 Wanted Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 13.30, 16.00, 18.45, Thur, Fri, Sun, Mon, Wed also 21.30, Sun also 11.00, Tues also 21.10, Sat 12.15, 15.00, 17.45, 20.30, 23.15 Wild Child Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 12.40, 15.15, 17.30, 19.50, Sun also 10.30, Sat 11.30, 14.00, 16.30, 19.00 You Don't Mess With the Zohan Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 17.10, 21.50, Sat 18.40, 23.20.

Pathé Tuschinski Reguliersbreestraat 34, 0900 1458 Atonement Thur, Tues 13.30 Caos calmo daily 12.15, 15.45, Fri-Sun, Tues, Wed also 18.15 The Dark Knight Thur-Sun, Tues, Wed 20.45 Elegy daily 18.45 Estômago daily 12.00, 15.00, 21.15 Factory Girl Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 17.30 Into the Wild daily 20.30 Mamma Mia! The Movie daily 21.30, Fri, Mon, Tues also 12.30, 16.00 Mongol daily 17.45 Vliegen naar de maan (3D) Sun, Wed 13.30, 16.15 Wall-E Thur, Fri, Sun-Wed 15.15, Thur, Fri, Mon, Tues also 12.45 Wall-E (NL) Sat 12.00, Sun, Wed 12.45 Wanted daily 18.30, 21.00, Fri-Mon, Wed also 13.00, 15.30 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? daily 13.15, 16.00, 19.00, 21.30.

Rialto Ceintuurbaan 338, 676 8700 Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens Thur-Mon, Wed 17.30, Sat also 13.15, Sun also 13.00 Calimucho daily 19.15, Fri, Sat, Wed also 15.15, Sun also 15.00 Caos calmo daily 17.00, 22.00, Thur-Mon, Wed also 19.45, Fri-Sun, Wed also 14.45, Sat, Sun also 12.30 Cordero de Dios daily 21.45, Thur-Mon also 19.30, Tues also 19.45, Sat also 13.00, Sun also 13.15 Edipo re Sun 11.00, Wed 19.00 Galina Ulanova Tues 19.30 Lemon Tree daily 17.15, Fri, Sat, Wed also 15.00, Sun also 15.10 Mouvement de la Hollande Tues 21.30 The Panman: Rhythm of the Palms Thur-Mon, Wed 21.15, Sun also 11.15 Parno Graszt Tues 21.30 Rudi van Dantzig: Leven of dansen Tues 17.30.

Studio K Timorplein 62, 692 0422 De brief voor de koning Wed 15.15 Happy-Go-Lucky daily 17.30 In Bruges Fri-Wed 22.15 Magnolia Thur 20.00 Mamma Mia! The Movie Fri-Wed 20.00 Wall-E Sat, Sun 15.15.

De Uitkijk Prinsengracht 452, 623 7460 Happy-Go-Lucky Thur-Tues 19.00, Wed 16.30 The Life Before Her Eyes Thur-Tues 21.30, Wed 19.00 Wall-E Thur-Tues 17.00, Wed 14.30.

20

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

FOOD/DRINK The Mouth

By Nanci Tangeman

Nature’s grandeur Grand Cafe De Bosbaan Bosbaan 4, Amsterdamse Bos 404 4869 Kitchen open 11.00-22.00 Bar/cafe open 10.00-00.00 Cash, PIN, credit cards The fireplace beckons. I can see the flames through the rain-dotted windows. It looks cosy inside Grand Cafe Bosbaan. There’s something comforting about rain and fireplaces. And the location of the building, within the Amsterdamse Bos, one of the largest parks in Europe, doesn’t hurt either.

Since our tennis game’s been rained out, my Worthy Opponent and I head inside.

The beckoning fireplace turns out to be a flatscreen TV, but weirdly, its effect is the same as a crackling, roaring hearth. We sit at one of the many tables overlooking the Bosbaan, the 2200-metre course that’s home to the Dutch Olympic rowing team. It feels comforting, like a big easy chair.

Not comforting, however: those prices staring back from the menu. North Sea plaice in cream sauce is €29.90. A meal-size tuna salad is €16.60 and kip sate is €19.50. Even fries are €3.90 per portion. The Heineken, though, comes in three sizes (€2.30, €2.50, €4.30) to fit any budget. We stick to the cheaper end of the menu.

Even that’s not exactly inexpensive. This place is turning out to be more ‘grand’ than ‘cafe’. The mid-day, mid-week crowd is mostly business people. Not many ramblers or rained-out athletes like us. I guess the name of the place should have tipped us off.

My Opponent orders an uitsmijter with cheese (€10.50). I opt

for the warm Panini with mozzarella, tomato and pesto (€6.10). I can smell the basil and garlic of the pesto before it hits the table. The bread is warm and soft and the cheese is melted just-so on the tomatoes. Opponent’s uitsmijter is, well, an uitsmijter. But at least she’s had no problem getting the kitchen to substitute brown bread.

They don’t make a habit of substitutions, however. On a previous visit, Opponent asked if the kitchen could put cheese on her hamburger (€8.10).

No problem. On her next visit she asked, but they apologised. ‘It just wasn’t possible’.

The Grand Cafe Bosbaan is one of several restaurants within the 1000 hectare Amsterdamse Bos—and it’s definitely the poshest. Still, weary ramblers fresh off the 137 km of footpaths or cyclists resting from the 51 km of bike paths shouldn’t feel like they can’t stop in for a bite. In fact, there are handy lockers (€1, refundable) right outside the cafe to store your gear while you’re exercising.

But we’re certainly not exercising.

The rain refuses to quit and, for once, I’m okay with that. Better to sit and read the dessert menu—chocolate mousse, lemon tart with raspberry ice cream, soesjes with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce (all €6.50)—than to return to the courts where Opponent would clean my clock. And besides, the video fire is growing on me.

There is one important bit of information that’s not on the menu. The area upstairs is available for events. They even offer special ‘condolence packages’. If the rain ever stops and we get back on the tennis court, I just may need to schedule one of those. ___

The bread is warm and soft and the cheese is melted just-so on the tomatoes.

A night in the life...

By Sarah Gehrke

Favourite tunes Weber Marnixstraat 397 Open Sun-Thur 20.00-03.00, Fri, Sat 20.00-04.00 Cash, PIN Two guys are standing outside Weber.

It’s 10pm on a Thursday night and the place is rammed. They’re both wearing striped shirts. One shirt is light blue. The other is light pink. They wear carefully styled hair. ‘So,’ says the guy in light blue, ‘should we go in here then?’ The other looks doubtful.

‘I don’t know, man,’ he says. ‘It’s really a bit too snobby, don’t you think?’

They proceed on their ramble along the street.

Inside, it seems like the guy was right. This looks like a frat party. No sisters here, either: just blocks of men with beer glasses in hand. Moving through the narrow room proves to be near impossible—especially if you’re one of the few girls.

The bar staff handle the masses with admirable professionalism.

They’re very quick and friendly. Still, if you’re not a big fan of having elbows rammed into your back or becoming entangled in conversations of mindblowing stupidity with strangers— both events occurring at ten-second intervals—you might want to walk out-

Beer price: €2.30 for a vaasje (Dommelsch) Emergency food: Pringles and wasabi nuts.

Special interior feature: The wall behind the bar is papered with pictures of record sleeves, including all the indie classics.

Predominant shoe type: Shiny, pointy leather shoes in the first half of the night. Converse in the second.

Typically ordered drink: Whisky and coke. Gin and tonic. Beer, beer, beer.

Smoking situation: Quite bad. They don’t have a terrace license, which means you can’t take your drinks outside.

Still, the ban gives rise to a little street party every night, which is kinda nice.

Tune of the night: The Strokes, ‘Reptilia’.

Mingling factor: Very high. Nobody stays alone here for long.

State of toilets near closing time: Dunno, the queue was too long. But I made a few friends while waiting, and from what they told me it seems to be all right.

General level of drunkenness at closing time: Ten out of ten.

side and join the smokers. Or come really early, grab a table, lean back on the cushions and watch the spectacle of boys on the hunt.

It should prove worth the wait.

Three hours later, this bar’s a completely new picture. The striped-shirt count has miraculously diminished. Instead, the place has filled with a mixture of tourists, indie chicks, horeca staff enjoying their after-work beers and general drunkards who didn’t feel one o’clock was an appropriate time to stagger home. The conversations are still often of mind-blowing stupidity— but now in a more fun way, spiced up by the little twist of freakiness that is the reason so many people partake in alcohol.

It’s still packed, and stays that way right to the bitter end. I hear a girl in leather jacket and skinny jeans tell a story to her friends. ‘You wouldn’t believe it!’ she says, saucer-eyed.

‘When I passed by here earlier on, I saw these guys standing outside. They were like the worst snobs ever. And they decided not to come into the bar, because they thought it too snobby!

And I just thought, what the hell am I doing, being a regular here? Ladies, we should really start going somewhere else.’ Her friends agree. But then a tune cuts in. It’s one of their favourites. The girls raise their arms and smile.

They’ve changed their mind once more. ___

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

S E RV I C E

21

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Cuyp. Renovated recentEnglish and in word format ly;70m2. High speed wireless at: Alessia@adamsrecruitJobs Wanted internet + dig. cable, utilities ment.com 020 580 0344 HOUSE-KEEPINGAn expe- included, first floor, fully furUNDUTCHABLES rienced English speaking nished, washer+dryer, corner RECRUITMENT AGENCY young man is looking for a apartment=lots of light, douAMSTELVEEN Sr. AccountHouse cleaning and ironing ble glazed windows- 1400ing manager speaking Dutch job in Amsterdam and its tjsegeren@hotmail.com and English Customer Service surrounding. I have refer- LOOKING FOR A ROOMHi! representatives. Sales manences. Interested persons I am 28 yo working lady and agers speaking English and should contact Joe on I am looking for a room to preferably another EU lan0642876667. rent in Amsterdam center guage. Helpdesk 1,2,3 line speaking Dutch and English DOG WALKERCanadian stu- (Westerpark area preferably).

Marketing managers speak- dent/dog walker. Email if inter- My budget is EUR 300-500 ing English Please mail ested thanks. p42i5@hot- per bedroom. annastepanova911@hotmail.com amstelveen@undutchables.nl mail.com

Amsterdam office. Previous Financial experience a +.

Visit our website: Booking.com/jobs OR send your CV to: work@Booking.com

GERMAN NATIVE Are you a German native? Are you looking for a fun job at a fun company in the centre of Amsterdam? Do you have a few hours per day, a few days per week available? Then GUIDION might be able to offer you the right job - 8 per hour. Interested? Send an email to bmartens@guidion.nl (Barbara) INTERNET RESEARCHER We are a global professional services firm looking for a researcher to perform inter-

CHEF / COOK Experienced chef looking for full time kitchen work, native english, almost fluent in dutch. CV and references available!

Liam 0624377127 MAN WITH A CRUSH The moment I saw her and heard hervoiceitturnedmeintoasentimentalpileofmushandIwant to help her cool mom find a job.

Shespeaksgreateng,goodspa, no dutch. She used to be an accountant but now she wants a ‘simple’ job somewhere fun.

Help me please:) puurge-

Find what you are looking for: www.amsterdamweekly.nl

APPARTMENT, 3 WEEKS Hi, I am about to go on holidays for 3 weeks, so my appartment is available from sept 12 till oct 4. Bright and sunny, with living, dining and bedroom. 3 minutes walk from Lelylaan station. Call 06-41456326, to view tomorrow!

DE PIJPFully furnished, balcony. Seeking neat, clean, and responsible female to house sit for 7 months. (650 euros all in per month) Call after 19.00: 0628825964

6 BDR APT. IN A'DAMAvailable 1st Oct 220sqm 3 floors furnished apt. Duivendrecht free parking near Ams Amstel St. 1st flr 2bdrm apt.

105sqm; 2nd flr 3bdrm appt 71sqm & attic studio 44sqm.

Ideal for family or sharing.

Monthly 1890 excl bills 580,incl cleaning.For more info call 020-6994662 or email info@noahsark.nl SMALL APPART CENTRUMSmall apartment centrum Amsterdam, semi-furnished,internet,Digital tv.possible for two months. 900 euros. Tel.06-55341089

Housing Wanted NEED ROOM URGENT Hi, i’m 25 working french girl, speak english, already spent 3 months in amsterdam, work as designer. already lived in colocation , with young and old people.easy going. need room in center for 6 months if you are interested please contact me ASAP dixy28@hotmail.com ROOM WANTED, MAX 600 After 12 years, I am single again. Even worse: I am homeless. So now I am desperately looking for a room or apartment, short or long term, to make a fresh start.

Preferably max. 600 euro per month, in a nice neighborhood. I am a Dutch male, 35 years old and I have a steady job. onno.karman@ gmail.com

Westerpark. +/- 850 EUR. excl. per mnd. Hein

Transport

REMOVALS/TRANSPORT White Van Man offers the best service for any removals (big or small), deliveries and collections at affordable rates throughout Holland but also any other EU destination.

Friendly, efficient and reliable. For more info check www.whitevanman.nl or call GRATIS GRATIS GRATIS on: 0623882184 21 jarige mannelijke student Reclame en Marketing voor NEED TO MOVE?VrachtVerhet opvullen van de lege huizer for fast removal, transkamer in uw woning. Grote port & delivery. English/Dutch/ liefde voor muziek, Amster- German speaking. Also in the dam en cultuur. Staat goed evening hours and weekends. bij elk behang. Hoe gezel- Service alreday from 35 Euro!! liger, hoe beter. Mail nu! Call today and get removed the same day if needed. v.perdijk@gmail.com.

0615149164/www.vrachtverhuizer.nl APARTMENT NEEDED Working couple in Amsterdam are looking for an apartment to rent with a min.1 bedroom, between E500E900.We would like to rent for long time. Contact email:vkincso@yahoo.com Tel:0636448294

Other Spaces

PHOTO STUDIO For amateur and professional photographers. Can also be used as meeting or gathering space. 100m2, 150/day. Possible to rent photo equipment. High ceilings, good, natural light and located on WG Plein, adjacent to Overtoom. For appointment and more info contact D.Ingel: 0628834224.

WATERSIDE WORK SPACE The Allies, a group of freelance media pros working in a twostorey studio on yacht marina in North A’dam, close to ferries, have space for new colleagues. Rent of 300/month /desk includes phone, ADSL and more. Call/mail Terri LOOKING 4 A PLACE: I’m Kester, 06 4240 0313, t.kester@ a free-lance architect and I chello.nl. work since two years in amsterdam, now looking for For sale rent/share in the centre or at reasonable bike distance. HAMMOCK STANDARD Reliable, polite and funny. Like new stand alone hammock made from eco/susLet me know GEZOCHT APPARTEMENT tainable FSC wood and guarDoor omstandigheden ben anteed for life. We love it, but ik op zoek naar apparte- we’re emigrating. Total cost: ment(onbepaalde tijd!) Woon 300 euros. Stand w/out hamruim vier jaar in Amsterdam mock: 225 euros. Email for (Rivierenbuurt);Werk als photos and more info: wegaanrecruitment consultant; Con- nuverhuizen@gmail.com.

BEST MOVING SERVICEWe can move you with a Van of 10 m3 or with a truck of 30m3, we have hoisting service and even a elevator-service . and as many men as you want to help with your moving for 20 per hour/person. In amsterdam and the whole of E.U. Ten years of experience! www.vrachttaxi.nl 020-707 2087 / 06-44864390

Services TAX & FINANCE Trying to get quality advice and save money at the same time?

We are specialized in bookkeeping and taxes, and guide our relations through the entire business process.

We work through a countrywide network with professionals who can help on each issue. Call us for RAAD! 06912217.

REMOVALS/TRANSPORT White van man offers the best service for any removals (big or small), deliveries and collections at affordable rates throughout Holland but also any other EU destination. Friendly,efficient and reliable. For more tract voor onbepaalde tijd. WASHING MACHINE: info check www.whitevanVoorkeur gaat uit naar Riv- BOSCH, 4 y/o, EUR150. Call: man.nl. Or call on: 06238 ierenbuurt, Hoofddorppl. of 0643404534.

82184.

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Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

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WEEKLY CLASSIFIEDS TOP HAIRCOLORIST Top haircolourist with 15 years of experience now in salon in the Pijp. Natural highlights, (semi)tints,colour-changes,creative colours. If i can’t do it, nobody can do it. Make an appointment with Daniel, mobile: 0624137392 or email: danielsmeets@yahoo.com. I also do haircuts and Make-up.

are experiencing are in reality your life’s lessons. Learn how to take positive advantage out of them! Interested? Learn more at www.martin-van-der-velde.nl HEALING TAO is a system of exercises & meditations that can help you to enhance your overall health & vitality. Certified teacher offers basic course in English, Mon. evenings from Sept. 15 at Aurora Centrum, Amsterdam. Open lessons Sept. 4 & 8. Phone: 06-28625424. Email: info@ronfox.nl Web-site: www.ronfox.nl

BUSINESS ADVICEAre you thinking about starting your own business? Do you have a company but administration and papers are not your thing? Do you need labour, to buy real estate or to move abroad? Call Tulipany on THE PATHWAYS with LAU0610218271 or check RA CATHERINE MARKS. www.tulipany.nl.

Transformational Sacred PsyLOOKING FOR YOUR PA?PA chology, Holistic Wellness & ONLINE BV offers multilingual Detox, Integrative Healing, PA’s and Top Secretaries to Supportive Counselling, facilitate you in your job, com- Reflective Art Therapy, pany and career. Please con- Sacred Circle, Living-Life tact PA ONLINE BV at 0255 Retreats, Dynamic Work500048, info@paonline.nl, shops. Individuals & Groups www.paonline.nl.

Welcome. Call 061.005.7806 EROTIC MASSAGE INFO www.freewebs.com/thepImprove your massage tech- athways niques by learning some erotic skills. Come and enjoy a free cup of tea and browse our specialised books and films on the topic, or get a life demonstration. WHEN? 25 September WHERE? An all day event at Mail & Female.

Nwe Vijzelstraat 2/ 020 6233916 WWW.MAILFEMALE.COM

EXPATRIATECOUNSELING offers professional Coaching, Counseling and Therapy in English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Japanese. Longer hours, weekends and the best service. For more information please visit www.expatriatecounseling.com call 06-282 440 88 or email info@expaARE YOU RENOVATING?At triatecounseling.com Have Harlington House we manage a wonderful day! the design, renovation and REIKI HEALING Are you decoration of your home or feeling low in energy or out office. We manage the project of balance? A Reiki healing from the beginning and deal helps to rebalance your enerwith all suppliers to make the getic system on an emotionprocess as smooth as possible al, physical, mental and spirand all in plain ENGLISH! For itual level. For more info see more details & contact info website. Contact: Anouk Lamcheck www.harlingtonhouse. brechts,06-52305738, info@ com allesisenergie.com, www.alleCAT AND PET SITTING34- sisenergie.com, Location: year-old woman who loves Amsterdam animals likes to take care of your pets during your holiday. I can pay a visit every day, give them food, love and attention. I also take care of your plants, clean the litterbox etc.Tariff: 9,50 per visit.

Contact:anouk_lambrechts@yahoo.com,tel.0652305738, Amsterdam

BACP PSYCHOTHERAPY Moved to Amsterdam and brought a shadow with you?

We are qualified, experienced and professional Englishspeaking therapists. We help with anxiety, depression, phobias, low self-esteem, addictions, eating disorders and trauma. info@nextsteptherIMMIGRATION LAWThink- apy.nl 0204651063 www. ing about staying? Verliefd nextsteptherapy.nl KvK No op een buitenlander? Get 34300550 expert advice from a US-born YOGA SUNDARI weekly Dutch legal advisor in Ams- YOGA classes Monday’s 20terdam. Specialized in part- 22 hrs close to DAM, accesnership/marriage with Dutch sible for everybody. Experior other EU citizens, perma- ence radiant health, emonent residence permits and tional harmony, mental clarnaturalization. Mr. Jeremy ity, relaxation, stress release.

B. Bierbach - http://immiDiscover your inner beauty, grate.nl tel: 020-7173975 unleash your power. You’re worth it! Call Rodica 06Health & Well18709804 .Also for coaching ness & therapy

ness machines, try SylFit... All ages & beginners welcome!

Small groups + personal training by certified trainer. Quiet, respectful atmosphere.

Gentle & safe exercises. Free open lessons Sep. 15-18 in Jordaan & Baarsjes. www.sylfit.com TAROT CARD READINGS for Inner Wellbeing. Spiritual insight on practical matters

by Bhasha. Available for private sessions & events.

Bhasha also gives readings in various restaurants - visit her there for a shorter version of her private readings.

Check www.tarotandyou. com or call 0204000260 or 0641485880.

EVENING ACUPUNCTURE Not anymore: you have to rush to get a consult from him - one of the best Chinese medical acupuncturists in the Netherlands during your busy daytime. Evening acupuncture clinic will bring you all harmonization and balance of your body and mind. Please visit:http://www.eatms.nl/ic.h tml for details.

Massage SOFT ACUPRESSUREFLOW My intensive, deep working massage will release tensions and pains from your body.It will bring more flow and balance.Home treatments are also possible.Call Ella 06-38605420 or mail holaella@yahoo.com FOOT REFLEXOLOGY If you feel low in energy or out of balance, foot reflexology can help to restabilize your energetic system (applying pressure to the areas on the feet that reflect the organs of the entire body). Contact: Anouk Lambrechts, 0652305738, info@allesisenergie.com, www.allesisenergie.com, Amsterdam

Home Improvement

A-REPAIR: REPAIRING, washing machines, dryers and dishwashers. All brands.

PSYCHIC CONSULTANT FITNESS FOR WOMENFeel No visiting costs charged.

Stop walking around in cir- supple, strong, relaxed. If you REPARATIE, wasmachines, cles. The difficulties that you don’t like aerobics and fit- drogers en vaatmachines.

Alle merken. Geen voorijkosten. Tel. 0643404534.

man available for home improvement projects, drywalls, paint, tiles, woodwork, built in closets, lift beds and much more. Fee advice. Great references, fast and reliable!

Call 06/ 24345357 RENO-BOUW-RAJCZYK HOUSE RENOVATIONS! Do you need cost-effective and high-quality full house renovation? Professional, experienced and with excellent references. Online links to past projects. Call now and ask for appointment: 06 4451 7410 or 029 42 66 585, www.reno-bouw.nl, karolrajczyk@hotmail.com

Computers PC HOUSE DOCTOR PC HOUSE DOCTOR Specialise in virus/spyware removal, h/w, s/w repair, data recovery, wireless, cable/ADSL installation and computer lessons from friendly and experienced Microsoft professional for reasonable price. Contact Mario: 06 1644 8230.

COMPUTER PROBLEMS? Computer upgrade, hardware/software installation, virus/spyware removal, data recovery, network/wireless setup. No job too small, no repair no charge. Contact Michael 0614530493 3DLAB is a professional team of 3D graphic designers(animators)and architects. 3Dimensional computer graphics will give your message the illusion of depth.We will take your idea and bring it to life by creating virtual 3D models of graphic and texts.Contact:3dlab@mail.com or visit myspace.com/3dlab UNIQUE WEB DESIGN Need a stunning website?

Have a low budget? Experienced web designer builds professional, unique sites for very reasonable prices. (Flyer, poster and other print design available as well) Online links to past projects available. Contact Jordan: 0630341238. jordangcz@ yahoo.com

PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE Learn the basics of photography such as composition, lighting, angle of view as well as how to work with different appertures and shutter speeds. Lessons (6x) take place at the ABC Treehouse, in the center of Amsterdam.

First lesson: September 18th.

More information: patricia@patriciaribas.com WRITER'S WORKSHOPS! The Master Class Series – workshops designed to help you master your craft in fiction, publishing, poetry, novel, screenwriting, & more!

Free open days: Aug 16 & 30 at The English Bookshop.

Info: www.wordsinhere.com TANTRA EXPERIENCEYou are invited to join Dawn Cartwright for an intimate evening of conversation & direct experience as we explore the dynamic spiritual path of Tantra. Sept 9th . 8 pm . De Roos Centrum Voor Creatieve & Spirituele Groei . A’dam . www.chandrabindutantrainstitute.com.

020-320 9585 INTRO TO TANTRA You’re invited to join us for an experience that will change your relationship to sex & spirit forever. You will learn dynamic Tantric techniques which may be used to open your body & heart to the natural flow of sexual energy. Sept 1314 . A’dam . www.chandrabindutantrainstitute.com .

020-320 9585 TANTRA EXPERIENCEYou are invited to join Dawn Cartwright for an intimate evening of conversation & direct experience as we explore the dynamic spiritual path of Tantra. October 7th . 8 pm . De Roos Centrum Voor Creatieve & Spirituele Groei . A’dam . www.chandrabindutantrainstitute.com .020-320 9585

ECSTASY OF THE HEART When Tantric techniques of meditation & awareness are woven into our experience of lovemaking we open our heart to a realm of intimacy that manifests as spiritual ecstasy. We discover that our sexuality is a doorway to awakCourses ening. Oct 10-12 . A’dam .

DRAWING AND PAINTING www.chandrabinduSummer workshops by pro- tantrainstitute.com . 020-320 fessional artist, various tech- 9585 niques, all styles, from scratch CHI KUNG - QIGONG Get to painting with oils. Contact grounded & centered. joneiselin@hetnet.nl.

Improve your circulation.

NEED A CONTRACTOR ??

Plumbing, Electricity, Painting, Plastering, Renovations, Laying of floors, Restaurations, Tiling, Carpentry, General construction works and WWW.LEARNDUTCH.COM Increase body awareness. repairs,and everything else, ! ! ! Dutch the natural way. Feel stable. Relax more, sleep 06 1899 1782 or mail info@klus- Online exercises. Interacbetter. With Chinese energy bus.net or www.klusbus.net tive, practical and hands on and fitness training, based EXPERIENCED HANDY- !!! information@learndutch. on ancient methods, taught MAN Experienced handy- com. in an undogmatic & playful

Find what you are looking for: www.amsterdamweekly.nl

DUTCH COURSES New evening courses starting in Sep., Centre of A’dam. 200250 for 20 hrs. Visit www.mercuurtaal.nl or call 693 4250.

you or for someone you choose, as a unique present.

For more information: amorion@aol.nl

NATIVE SPEAKER? Mother Tongues (www.mothertongues.net) is looking for native speakers of English who translate from all languages to English. We do text translations, subtitling, copywriting, and editing work. If you have experience and are a native speaker of English, please respond to info@mothertongues.net.

Looking For

A'DAM & ALL RANDSTAD way. Free open lessons: Sep. DUTCH PROFICIENCY IN 15-18 in Jordaan & Oud-Zuid. CONVERSATION on solid www.chi-kung-training.com base of pronunciation, grammar&spelling. socialising/ SHIATSU COURSE Learn profess purpose/studies/NT2/ how to give a simple but effiInburgering/REGULAR/ ONcient treatment. IntroducLINE ph 16,69/Adults&chiltion to the basic principles dren/Monday through Satof shiatsu. 10 wednesdays urday/INTENSIVE courses 9.30-11.45 start 17th of www.excellentdutch.nl/excel september at the Zen Shiatlentdutch@hotmail.com, 06su Opleiding.Info: www.zen36122870 shiatsu.nlmonikaforster@dd INTENSIVE DUTCHCOURSs.nl tel 020 6937808 ES at JOOST WEET HET! ENGL. WRITING COURSE Classes 4 times per week durSchrijversvakschool Amsing 4 hours. Good teachers, terdam offers a special fun classes and energetic athcourse in creative writing mosphere. Small groups, perskills, starting on Friday sonal approach with emphaOctober 3rd from 7.00 – 10.00 sis on conversation. 2,3,4 and pm. Fee 395,- for 8 classes. 8 wks courses. Price: E 8 /hr.

Registration closes on Visit www.joostweethet.nl September 20th. For more email: info@joostweethet.nl information see www.schri- tel: 020-4208146 jversvak school.nl or call 06 15 15 71 40 for a registration Music form.

SINGING & GUITAR Professional Singing and Guitar Languages Lessons on Prinsengracht WWW.LEARNDUTCH.COM in the Jordaan.Individual ! ! ! Dutch the natural way. and group lessons.Free introOnline exercises. Interactive, duction lesson+reasonable practical and hands on !!! infor- prices.For more information mation@learndutch.com. call Michael on 0618117754 DUTCH PROOFREADERS or mail ajara77@yahoo.com - For a Turkish and Dutch PIANO LESSONS Doctorate proverb collection proof- in Music; Experienced with readers are required. Care- all levels, all ages(6+)and most ful reading skills and an genres. Can travel. Reasonappreciation of compara- able rates. References protive proverbs field is essen- vided. Previously taught in tial; English and German Chicago and New York. Allan knowledge useful but no Segall. 020 698 0267; Turkish is necessary. Pay- 0628858484; AllanSegall@ ment to be made according chello.nl; www. myspace.com/ to accuracy. Editor is locat- allansegall ed in Istanbul.

SAXOPHONE LESSONS DUTCH LESSONS WANTED Master graduated at the ConI am happy to offer Yoga or servatorium van Amsterdam Meditation sessions, in with experience in teaching, exchange for Dutch speaking gives saxophone lessons. sesssions ! I am looking for a Beginners, intermediate and native Dutch teacher or some- advance levels. Different one interested in teaching me styles and a lot of fun! First spoken Dutch. This is for lesson no charge! 06 27526558 September & October. Thanks. saxlesson@yahoo.com chycentre@gmail.com IMPROVE YOUR DUTCH! Private classes, small groups, intensive courses, conversation, all levels, starting every week, professional approach, Vijzelgracht 53C, linktaalstudio@gmail.com, call Anja for more info 0641339323

The Arts INVITE A POET ! Poetry at your home, in a cosy and most initimate sphere listen to Dutch (and other language) poems, read by an Amsterdam poet. You also can have a very personal poem, written especially for

... YOUR NEW PA ?? Our Personal Assistants are looking for you! PA Online offers very experienced multi-lingual Executive Assistants for both national and international companies; short or long term contract.

PA Online BV, www.paonline.nl, info@ paonline.nl, +31 255 500048.

Groups & Clubs PARTY WITH THE BEST! Join the fun at www.

DemocratsAbroad.nl - the 51st state of the Democratic Party, with pub nights, issues, voting and more.

“LESBIAN EXPAT GROUP Come and join us – A free social group for expat lesbian and bisexual women in Amsterdam. Visit our website at www.lbexpat.nl. Picnics, drinks, sports, dining and more.

WELCOME TO AMSTERDAM Are you one the hundreds new expats just arrived in A’dam? Still struggling to find your way? Join JCI. Get the opportunity to quickly make new friends and contacts. Get involved into great projects and socialize with other likeminded, international young professionals.For more info: www.jciai.nl HEALTH GROUP Looking for women interested in joining a Women’s only Health group. Meetings monthly to discuss ideas and topics related to improving our overall health and wellness.

All ages welcome, next meeting in September. Email debs7@ live.co.uk for more info.

BABIES AND TODDLERS Bring your bored babies and toddlers (up to 4 years) to Robbeburg Playgroup, Jekerstraat 84, any weekday morning from 10 until 12. Sessions from 5 euros. www.robbeburg.com Space also available for children’s parties.

Notices WHAT IS AN ESOTERIC SCHOOL? Human development: Is real change possible? Starting in September on Tuesday evenings at 8PM. Call: 0655583061 - www. phoenixdynamics.nl LOOKING FOR A PATH to self-development? Introductory lectures to the possibility of a harmonious development of self. Interested? Visit our website for the next event: www.elare.nl, email: infoelare@yahoo.com or call: 0614052874

How to submit a classified ad • Submit classifieds at www.amsterdamweekly.nl/classifieds

• •

Ads are free, space permitting Deadline: Monday at midnight

Amsterdam Weekly_11-17 September 2008

S E RV I C E

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